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World War 
v Martyrs y 

Lee's Veterans 



B-H- Carroll 



J-B-Gambrell 



Georde W. MsDaniel 




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COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT 



A MEMORIAL WREATH 



GEORGE W. McDANlEL, D. D., LL. D. 

PASTOR FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH, RICHMOND, VA. 



Author of "Our Boys in France/' "The People 

Called Baptists/' "The Churches of the 

New Testament/' etc. 




Baptist Standard Publishing Company 

DALLAS, TEXAS 

1921 






Copyright, 1921, by 
BAPTIST STANDARD PUBLISHING CO. 



L. H» Jenkins, Inc. 

Edition Book Manufacturers 

Richmond, Va. 



■ m W -6 1921. 
©CI.A630033 



To my son 

JOHN HARRINGTON McDANIBL 

a volunteer at seventeen 

and now 

a veteran at twenty 

with the prayer and hope that he may 

always emulate and exemplify the 

virtues of the men memorial- 

ized in this volume. 



FOREWORD. 



The author of these memorial addresses is 
the pastor of one of our greatest churches, the 
president of the Virginia Baptist General Asso- 
ciation, and the Commissioner for Virginia of 
the Seventy-five Million Campaign. Moreover, 
in general, he is active and influential in the life 
of the denomination and is the loyal and alert 
friend of every good work. We congratulate 
him and his friends that he has found time in 
recent years, in the midst of his various and 
serious duties and obligations, to prepare and 
publish valuable and important books. The 
most notable of these are his volumes, "The 
People Called Baptists" and "The Churches of 
the New Testament," the latter quite recently 
issued. In both of these he has grouped with 
admirable skill and discussed with taste and 
ability a great number of pertinent facts. 

In this book he gives permanent form to sev- 
eral occasional addresses. Some readers will 
be attracted to it by their love and admiration 
for the author, some by their interest in the per- 
sons commemorated, and some by the clear, 
easy flowing style which characterizes the ad- 



dresses. The strictly personal memorials are 
in honor of men whom this writer knew inti- 
mately and they well deserve these fine and 
discriminating tributes. 

R. H. Pitt, 
The Religious Herald Office, 
Richmond, Va. 



CONTENTS 

PAGE 

CHAPTER I 

The Men Who Fell in the World War . 7 

CHAPTER II 

Lee's Veterans 23 

CHAPTER III 
A Giant of the Southwest— B. H. Carroll, 44 

CHAPTER IV 
Our Great Commoner — J. B. Gambrell . 70 



THE MEN WHO FELL IN THE WORLD 
WAR. 

Life is a battle. We instinctively feel that 
it is a real combat in which the universe gains 
immeasurably by the triumph of Right. From 
Tubal-Cain to Du Pont, from Joshua to Foch, 
from righteous Abel to the young men whose 
memory we honor to-day, the story is one of 
struggle — for the individual and the race. 
"Glory is not to be purchased but by blood." 
Less than two hundred and fifty years of peace 
have been allotted to the total past history of 
man. War has been the rule; peace, the ex- 
ception. 

Every age has its challenge. The noblest 
souls exult in meeting the challenge. The 
things that abide cost deep and intense effort, 
passionate and heroic sacrifice. The people, 
for the sake of a high moral purpose, and the 
nation for the sake of a lofty ideal, sub- 
ordinated pleasures, abandoned comforts, en- 
dured hardships, braved dangers, and poured 
out their life blood. 'Tis the story of the cen- 
turies retold. Through the ages man has been 



8 A MEMORIAL WREATH 

ripened by sorrows; victory has been wrung" 
by martyrdoms; the everlasting kingdom has 
been built upon a cross. The race has climbed 
like corals, grave by grave. At last the island 
of Civilization is lifting its head above the 
bosom and billows of the sea, let us hope, to 
grow by the graves of war no more forever. 
If such shall be its serene and stable fortune, 
it is because into its formation, at its very crest, 
where the waves lapped wildest, our sons and 
brothers, our American manhood, shed their 
blood and laid down their lives. 

The paramount concern for any man is not 
to live. Life in itself is not the sweetest and 
dearest possession. Liberty is of higher value. 
Her price is above rubies. A voice, sounding 
from old St. John's calling for liberty or death, 
summoned the Colonists to arms and struck 
the shackles from men who were born to be 
free. The reverberations of that voice can be 
heard in the remotest corners of Europe to- 
day. The human race is saying with a fuller 
meaning, what Narodney said of Russia: "I 
am nothing; personality, success, happiness, 
they are nothing; exile, Siberia, the Czar's bul- 
let, they are nothing; there is just one thing, 
that Russia must be free." 

Duty is a larger word than life. It is infi- 
nitely more important that one shall do his duty 
than it is that he shall live. When and where 



MEN WHO FELL IN WORLD WAR 9 

we shall die are minor questions. How we 
shall live and how we shall die are the great 
questions. Nor is long life always to be de- 
sired. Existence is evaluated not by longevity, 
but by earnestness, intensity, purposefulness. 
Life is not measured in years but in deeds, 
not in breaths but in thoughts. Sir Walter 
Scott wrote: 

"One crowded hour of glorious life 
Is worth an age without a name." 

Cowardice is more to be dreaded than con- 
flict. The coward is equally worthless both 
in peace and in war. Death with honor is pref- 
erable to life with ignominy. Courage is the 
captain of glory. Courage is not the creature 
of law: it is the child of nature. Fearlessness 
and freedom sit together. The oldest legislator 
drafted a code for Greece which excluded the 
coward from all share in public deliberations, 
rendered him incapable of receiving the honor 
of a crown, and denied him admission to public 
religious rites. A government is strong and 
secure just as its people are loyal and brave. 

Demosthenes concluded his matchless oration 
by describing the two characteristics of a well- 
disposed citizen: (1) His constant aim in au- 
thority should be the dignity and pre-eminence 
of the commonwealth: (2) Always and every- 



io A MEMORIAL WREATH 

where his spirit should be loyal. Our men, 
officers and privates, displayed a devotion to 
country unsurpassed, and in the greatest crisis 
of history brought America to a position where 
her name rose superior to her fame. College 
men showed themselves worthy of their college. 
The scene changed from class-room and athletic 
field, from court house and pulpit, from office 
and shop, from factory and farm to camp and 
trenches ; but their characters met the test unim- 
paired, — rather transfigured. 

These young men, our heroes, chose the 
better part. To have done less would have 
forfeited their manhood, betrayed justice, and 
imperiled posterity. Could they speak to-day 
from the echoless shore, not one would alter 
his decision. From the illimitable heights of 
heaven they look back upon the dust and dirt, 
the struggle and suffering, the camps and con- 
flict, with the satisfaction of soldiers who 
"fought the good fight" and wear the victor's 
crown. 

"They have given their lives with bodies bruised ' 
and broken. 
Upon their country's altar they have bled ; 
They have left as priceless heritage a token 
That Honor lives forever with the Dead." 

I come not to condole, for yours is not a 

misfortune calling for pity. I come to console, 



MEN WHO FELL IN WORLD WAR 1 1 

to alleviate sorrow by encouragement, to lead 
you to a blessed contentment in your provi- 
dential circumstances. Such consolation may 
be derived from a three-fold consideration of 
the character of God, of the Christian religion, 
and of your martyrs of freedom. If I can bring 
a message befitting this service I shall have 
spoken as my heart dictated. 

In hours of bereavement we betake ourselves 
to God. Refuge and strength are found in His 
goodness and greatness. He is incapable of per- 
petrating the cheat that refuses fruition to our 
inherent powers of knowledge and character. 
God is not a half-witted artist outlining figures 
of beauty on canvass to daub them with the 
brush of death. He is not a speculator building 
oases in the desert and then consuming them in 
burning sands. He is not a child building block 
houses only to tumble them down. He is not a 
printer setting type orderly and standing indif- 
ferently by while a rude hand pies the type. He 
is not a musician constructing an instrument 
capable of heavenly harmony and dashing that 
instrument to pieces ere its strings have vibrated 
their sweetest strains. 

God made man in His own likeness, with a 
character eternally progressive, and God cares 
for His masterpiece. Providence feeds the 
improvident sparrows and clothes the lilies in 
fairy pride. Personality is more valuable than 



12 A MEMORIAL WREATH 

sparrows, more attractive than lilies. Surely a 
reasonable and beneficent Being preserves the 
crown of creation, personality. Charles Dar- 
win, though his faith was fugitive, wrote : "It 
is an intolerable thought that man and all other 
sentient beings are doomed to complete anni- 
hilation after such long-continued slow prog- 
ress." About sentient beings other than man, 
science and revelation are silent. Man is the 
only creature that meditates upon death and 
contemplates it with awe. Multitudes expect 
immortality who do not desire it, and many 
look for the heavenly life who care little for 
the earthly. 

Whence and wherefore this universal dread 
or fond desire ? Does the instinct which directs 
squirrels to store in autumn with falling nuts 
their woodland homes against winter's want 
betray man with a hope that is only a dream? 
Does that strange something that stirs in the 
bosom of arctic birds, causing them to leave 
their warm, feathery nests and wing their long 
flight to the sunny tropics belie man in his 
homing instinct for immortality ? Nay, verily. 

"He who, from zone to zone, 
Guides through the boundless sky thy certain 

flight, 
In the long way that I must tread alone, 
Will lead my steps aright/' 



MEN WHO FELL IN WORLD WAR 13 

Another source of consolation is the Gospel 
of Christ. Our holy religion is not cold stoi- 
cism, feeling no heart-ache and shedding no 
tears; not ephemeral Epicureanism laughing 
and dancing in the chamber of death; not ab- 
horrent Mohammedanism coveting an eternal 
existence of sensuality; not contemplative 
Buddhism loving nothing and escaping contin- 
uous existence "like a flame that has been blown 
out"; not despairing agnosticism travelling a 
crooked, unlighted street and ending on a hope- 
less brink ; not crass materialism conceiving per- 
sonality as a transient result of physical vibra- 
tions and ceasing like the peal of a bell. 

Our religion is that of Him who felt com- 
passion and showed sympathy; whose life was 
serious and whose soul was troubled ; who con- 
ceived heaven as a spiritual state in our Fath- 
er's house; who bestowed upon believers ever- 
lasting life ; who was the straight Way that led 
through the misty valley of time to the blissful 
heights of eternity; who taught that man was 
soul and worth more than a world. Fathers 
and mothers, sisters and brothers, wives and 
sweethearts, you sorrow, but not as others who 
have no hope ; you see the star and hear the rus- 
tling wing in the hour of death. You trust 
where you cannot understand and 



H A MEMORIAL WREATH 

Trace the rainbow through the rain, and feel, 
That morn shall tearless be. 

My friends, how cruel this world would be, 
how disconsolate our hearts, without this fade- 
less hope ! Death itself is changed in the light 
of it— changed to a powerless enemy, robbed 
of its sting, made the door-keeper to our Fath- 
er's house. Jesus abolished death, and brought 
life and immortality to light through the gos- 
pel. He came to deliver those who through fear 
of death were all their life time subject to 
bondage. The Christian has a new vocabulary 
for the dissolution of body and spirit : "fallen 
on sleep" — awaiting the awakening when soul 
and body shall be re-united ; "absent from the 
body" — only absent from the roll call here be- 
cause they have answered the roll call up there ; 
"decease"— an exodus from an Egypt of bond- 
age to a land of liberty, from the country of 
aliens to the citizenship of heaven ; "departure" 
< — loosing the moorings and setting the sails of 
a cargoed ship for her native element, the 
mighty ocean. 

And every tide shall bear thee on, 
And every wind shall fill 
Thy sail, to help thee to thy goal. 
Have thou but courage still. 

The thoughts of God's goodness and the 



MEN WHO FELL IN WORLD WAR 15 

gospel's gladness lead joyfully to the considera- 
tion of our soldiers' service. What manner of 
men were they? How do they rank among the 
soldiers of earth? Pericles' characterization of 
the Athenians is equally appropriate to the 
Americans : "We trust not so much to prepara- 
tions and stratagems as to our own valor for 
daring deeds." By so much as the World War 
transcended every other, by just so much does 
the American soldier surpass all other soldiers. 
His dash was the most impetuous, his efforts 
the most decisive, his motive the most altruistic. 
German officers have borne witness to the fact 
that the Americans were the first to halt their 
drives ; the first to throw them on the defensive ; 
the first to break their historic line ; the first to 
keep on coming, falling, dying, but ever advanc- 
ing; the first by dauntless spirit to destroy the 
morale of their army, and the only ones whom 
they never overcame in a combat. 

The American ideal rose like a star in the 
somber sky of the Allies and the American sol- 
dier demonstrated the possibility of realizing 
that ideal. The pulse beats faster when we 
reflect upon the deeds of our men. Unlike the 
troops of Publius Scipio they never needed 
heartening by the derogatory description of an 
enemy with battered armor, lame and powerless 
horses — not enemies in reality, but only their 
remains. Unlike the troops of Scipio Af ricanus 



16 A MEMORIAL WREATH 

they were never charged by their general with 
the heinous crime of the violation of the solemn 
obligation of a military oath. Unlike the troops 
of Hannibal they were never nerved by a vet- 
eran record of twenty years' service to hurl 
themselves against a raw and beaten army. 
Unlike the mutinous troops of Germanius, the 
mighty spirits of Augustus and Drusus were 
never invoked to turn the rage among them- 
selves to the destruction of their enemies. Un- 
like the conspirators of Cataline, the terror in 
their breasts never deafened them to the orders 
of their officers. 

Like the troops of Otho, their impetuous 
courage called forth from their commanders the 
counsel of moderation. Like the troops of 
Agricola, they convinced their countrymen that 
the protraction of the war should not be im- 
puted to them and closed a conflict of four ter- 
rible years in four momentous months. The 
spirits of Lee and Jackson, our stainless war- 
riors, were upon them and they kept their re- 
solve never to lower or stain their standard. 

The events of the war are too recently told, 
too well known, for me to descant upon them. 
In summary : Our men built with their bodies 
and guns a cliff on the Marne against which 
the rushing tides broke in helpless fury and 
harmless foam. They fought for Soissons with 
the relentless determination of a team in a 



MEN WHO FELL IN WORLD WAR 17 

championship game — the greatest ever played — 
some of their best mates bruised, exhausted, 
disabled, dead, but replaced by men of the same 
spirit; and they marched up the field, carried 
the ball over for a touchdown and kicked a fair 
goal. They fell like an avalanche on St. Mihiel 
salient and eliminated in thirty-six hours what 
France was unable to reduce in four years. 
They penetrated the Argonne Forest where 
concealed machine guns, manned by experts, 
raked every foot of approach and they captured 
by frontal attack what Napoleon and every 
other general who fought in that terrain deemed 
too hazardous to attempt. The force of the 
first blow carried them seven miles in one day, 
September 26th, and ended stationary warfare. 
They fought on with superhuman endurance 
and courage against natural barriers such as 
no other army in any theater of this war over- 
came and they unfurled the Stars and Stripes 
above Sedan, November it, the very day the 
Union Jack was borne aloft into Mons. 

Here is something unparalleled in history: 
The war ended with the British where they be- 
gan their first big battle — at Mons in 19x4; it 
ended with the Americans and French at Sedan, 
where the seed for this war were sown in 1871. 
It ended as it did and when it did because the 
fresh, dashing, irresistible American youths 
carried a spirit to Europe which turned the 



18 A MEMORIAL WREATH 

tables, threw the enemy on the defensive, gave 
him no rest, demoralized his army, disrupted 
his alliance, pierced his vitals, and forced the 
alternative of the capture of a million men and 
the invasion of Germany, or an armistice. 

To the Americans belonged the unique dis- 
tinction, the unrivalled fame, that every field 
over which they fought was theirs at the end 
of the battle. Trom the first baptism of fire at 
Sceicheprey to the last shot on the Meuse, 
American courage shone resplendent. Cantig- 
ny, Belleau Wood, and the Verdun front were 
enough to test the valor of any troops. Our 
casualties there were large, but they were not 
irreparable losses. 

They are not dead ! Such souls can never die ! 
They are like stars with paths beyond our ken ; 
We glimpse them for an instant, as they go 
To thrill with glory other lands that lie, 
Perhaps, in darkness. They will come again, 
Or we shall find them — for God willed it so. 

There is glory enough for all and military 
glory enough for all time. Could our eyes 
pierce the veil that separates from the spirit 
world, we might see those killed in action, those 
who died of wounds or by accident, and those 
who were the prey of disease locked in loving 
embrace. Those who fell on the field and those 
who fell from a pandemic plague share equal 



MEN WHO FELL IN WORLD WAR 19 

honors. Were our ears so attuned as to catch 
the whispered sentiments of the 48,768 slain, 
we might hear them say of those 53,566 who 
died of disease : "These are our comrades. They 
feared not death, but preferred to meet him in 
action. Their end was less thrilling but their 
service none the less telling/' 

Last night I dreamed of your dead. I said to 
those dear fellows who, 

"With heads erect and spirits unappalled, 
Answered the summons when stern duty 
called": 

"While we live we will carry your unwritten 
memorial in our hearts; ere we die we shall 
build for the college which you loved so well 
and which helped to form your manly charac- 
ters a material monument to perpetuate your 
names and fame : when we die we want to meet 
you among the throng who waves the victors* 
palms." 

Proud as we are of these Rnight-errants of 
the holy grail, — these young crusaders who res- 
cued the tomb of France's freedom from the 
unspeakable Turk and heartless Hun, loneliness 
and sorrow are nevertheless natural and ines- 
capable. To treat that grief lightly were to 
mock affections of divine sanction. Every 
heart throbs in sympathy with the hearts of the 
families of our dead comrades. We trust, how- 



20 A MEMORIAL WREATH 

ever, that you would not reverse, if you could, 
the decision of your sons. Their satisfaction 
with duty well done, with danger faced fear- 
lessly, with victory achieved sacrificially, should 
be your supremest joy. Is this too much to 
expect of the bereaved? Dr. James L. Hughes 
of Toronto, who lost a son with the allied 
forces, answers: 

"God gave my son in trust to me. 
Christ died for him, and he should be 
A man for Christ. He is his own, 
And God's and man's ; not mine alone. 
He was not mine to 'give.' He gave 
Himself that he might help to save 
All that a Christian should revere, 
All that enlightened men hold dear. 

It matters not where some men live. 
If my dear son his life must give 
Hosannas I will sing for him, 
E'en though my eyes with tears be dim. 
And when the war is over, when 
His gallant comrades come again, 
I'll cheer them as they're marching by, 
Rejoicing that they did not die* 
And when his vacant place I see, 
My heart will bound with joy that he 
Was mine so long — my fair young son — 
And cheer for him whose work is done." 

Think not of your loss, but of the world's 



MEN WHO FELL IN WORLD WAR 21 

gain; not of the years from which you have 
lost them but of the happy years in which you 
had them. Huxley, in his famous letter to 
Charles Kingsley about his own dead son, said : 
"I have given back to the source from which 
it came, the cause of great happiness, still re- 
taining through all my life the blessings which 
have sprung and will spring from that cause. 55 
Live as becometh the loved ones of those who 
were without reproach or fear, who rose as 
close as man is ever to the stars, who shrank 
not to offer their lives upon their country's 
altar, who died that others might live in safety 
and who enabled a discordant world to hope to 
see the light of peace rise on the light of liberty 
like, 

Another morn 
Risen on mid-noon. 

Late in the afternoon a father and his small 
boy were walking in the suburbs of a city. The 
boy with observing eye noticed every service 
flag that hung in the windows. "Papa, there is 
a blue star in that window. Here are three blue 
stars in this window. Oh, there is a gold star in 
yonder window! What is that for? 55 "They 
have lost a son in the war. The gold represents 
him. 55 The sun was down, the dusk of the even- 
ing fast turning into dark when the boy 
glimpsed the evening star shining in the heav- 



22 A MEMORIAL WkEATH 

ens. "Oh, Papa, 55 he exclaimed, "God has a 
son in this war." "Yes, He has, my boy, and 
His star is a gold one." Oh, can anyone in our 
great country appreciate so deeply the love of 
God that gave His son as those bereaved par- 
ents who have lost their sons in the service? 

Ye who in Sorrow's tents abide, 

Mourning your dead with hidden tears, 

Bethink ye what a wealth of pride 

They've won you for the coming years. 

Grievous the pain ; but, in the day 
When all the cost is counted o'er, 

Would it be best that ye should say : 
"We lost no loved ones in the war?" 

Who knows? But proud then shall ye stand 
That best, most honored boast to make : 

"My lover died for his dear land," 
Or, "My son fell for freedom's sake." 

Christlike they died that we might live; 

And our redeemed lives would we bring, 
With aught that gratitude may give 

To serve you in your sorrowing. 

And never a pathway shall ye tread, 
No foot of seashore, hill, or lea, 

But ye may think : "The dead, my dead, 
Gave this, a sacred gift, to me." 



II. 

LEE'S VETERANS. 

Devotion to the Confederacy was born in me. 
The first large gathering I ever attended was 
a reunion of Hood's Brigade in Texas, and I 
can still feel the thrill that went through my 
young soul as I heard the cheering of 10,000 
veterans and listened to the clarion voice of 
Roger Q. Mills, and the melodious tones of 
Norman G. Kittrell expounding the principles 
narrating the deeds and proclaiming the virtues 
"of the men who wore the grey." Richmond 
became in my boyish imagination a sort of 
shrine. The passing years and intimate ac- 
quaintance have made that shrine more sacred. 
The debates of Webster and Hayne, of Cal- 
houn and Clay, of Davis and Douglas, are to 
me the masterpieces of American polemics. The 
years of '61 to '65 mellow my spirit and hold 
me with irresistible charm. Therefore, to ac- 
cept an invitation to deliver the memorial ad- 
dress of Lee Camp for the second time is indeed 
a cherished pleasure. 

Viscount Morley, in the most informing book 
of the past year (1917) makes a striking com- 



24 A MEMORIAL WREATH 

ment on the war between the states* It was 
"the only war in modern times as to which we 
can be sure: first, that no skill or patience of 
diplomacy could have averted it; and, second, 
that preservation of the American Union and 
abolition of negro slavery were two vast tri- 
umphs of good by which even the inferno of 
war was justified/' 

As to the first statement: it is undoubtedly 
true that two conflicting ideas of government 
existed in the minds of the founders of the 
Republic, and persisted, without abatement on 
either side, to the outbreak of the war. They 
were incarnated in those two protagonists, Jef- 
ferson and Hamilton, whose debates across the 
cabinet table marred the harmony of Washing- 
ton's administration and gave him many 
anxious moments. Ingenious statesmen, pa- 
triotic civilians and devout pacifists employed 
every known method of diplomacy to avert open 
conflict. All compromises and devices which 
postponed the final issue made its eventuality 
more certain and fatal. Clashing theories for 
seventy years presaged the glistening bayonets. 

As to Lord Morley's second observation, that 
the results justified the war : we rejoice to agree 
that to-day we are one people, but I suggest 
the qualifying remark that slavery would have 
passed away had there been no war. It was a 
liability to our economic and social life, and 



LEE'S VETERANS 25 

scores of petitions were filed in the South for 
its discontinuance, and hundreds of owners had 
manumitted their slaves. If the fiery abolition- 
ists had not lighted the match of civil war, 
Christianity would have settled the slavery 
question without bloodshed and slaughter. 

On occasions like this it is deemed appro- 
priate to discuss the merits of the Confederate 
cause more for the information of the present 
generation than for the encouragement of the 
veterans. You men of Lee's army know, better 
than I can tell, the principles for which you 
fought. Your consciences approve the course 
which you pursued. After fifty-six years' re- 
flection, no one of you regrets his action. Under 
similar circumstances you would do the same 
thing again. Some of you bear in your bodies 
the scars of battle, and they are badges of 
honor. But in the bosom of no one of you 
does bitterness rankle. Time has healed the 
wounds and history is doing you tardy justice. 
In the Capital and heart of the Confederacy, of 
all places on earth, the lamps of true history 
should be kept trimmed and burning. What 
shall we say then of the ill-starred, but immortal 
cause, for which our fathers fought? 

It was right morally. If three million people 
had the moral right to withdraw from the Brit- 
ish government in 1776, why did not twenty 
million Southerners have the same moral right 



26 A MEMORIAL WREATH 

to withdraw from the American Union in 
1 86 1 ? If President Davis was a traitor, so 
were Patrick Henry, James Madison, Benjamin 
Franklin and President Washington ; if General 
Lee was a rebel, so were Francis Marion, 
Thomas Sumpter, Nathaniel Green and An- 
thony Wayne. If all just governments derive 
their just power from the consent of the gov- 
erned, who can deny the moral right of fifteen 
states to determine their form of government? 
Wendell Phillips, never noted for Southern 
prejudice, pertinently said in a speech at New 
Bedford, Mass., on April 9, 1861 : "A large 
body of people, sufficient to make a nation, have 
come to the conclusion that they will have a 
government of a certain form. Who denies 
them that right ? Standing with the principles 
of '76 behind us, who can deny them the right?" 
With him agreed Horace Greely, Salmon P. 
Chase, William H. Seward, President Buc- 
hanan, Edward Everett and Abraham Lincoln. 
As Charles Francis Adams remarked, "The dif- 
ference was that, confronted by the overwhelm- 
ing tide of events, Virginia adhered to it; they 
in the presence of that tide, tacitly abandoned 
it" 

Imperialistic and despotic governments are 
maintained by force, but the United States was 
a government founded on fraternity. The 
voices of Lloyd-George and President Wilson 



LEE'S VETERANS 27 

eloquently proclaimed the rights of people to 
determine their own forms of government, and 
manage their own affairs, unawed by militar- 
ism. If we can interpret the jargon of articula- 
tions from Russia it is a demand for the right 
of people to determine for themselves their 
government and rulers. In other words, gen- 
tlemen, the moral strength of the Allies' cause 
to-day, and that which their leaders are anxious 
to have rooted in the minds of all men, is in 
essence the same as that for which you con- 
tended nearly sixty years ago. 

It was right legally. The f ramers of our con- 
stitution had before them the British constitu- 
tion. That document makes parliament a sov- 
ereign and omnipotent body with authority to 
change any law, even the administration of jus- 
tice and the succession to the crown, and with 
unlimited power over property and person. But 
our constitution builders refused to follow the 
British precedent, and framed a document 
which limits the competence of national author- 
ity and leaves ultimate sovereignty with the 
people of the states. 

We have always and truthfully insisted that 
the Union was a voluntary compact of sover- 
eign states; that these states won their inde- 
pendence from the mother country, and never 
surrendered it upon entering the Union; that 
they were the creators and not the creatures of 



28 A MEMORIAL WREATH 

the Union ; that all rights not specifically dele- 
gated in the constitution were expressly re- 
served ; that it was a Union of consent and not 
of force; that the right of secession had been 
proclaimed by Northern states notably at Hart- 
ford in 1814, when Massachusetts, Connecticut 
and Rhode Island in convention assembled, de- 
clared "it is as much the duty of the state au- 
thorities to watch over the rights reserved as of 
the United States to exercise the powers dele- 
gated"; and that no authority resided in the 
Union for preventing secession or coercing a 
sovereign state. The only answer I have ever 
seen to this argument is by Bryce in his Ameri- 
can Commonwealth, who says, "the knot was 
cut by the sword." That is not really an 
answer unless we subscribe to the dictum that 
"might makes right." 

Upon the less important question of slavery 
the South held its legal rights. Slavery existed 
in all the states before the Revolution. Because 
of climatic and economic conditions the slaves 
gradually gathered in the South. In the Con- 
stitutional Convention held in Philadelphia in 
1787, upon the proposal of Virginia, slavery 
lifted its black, kinky head, and precipitated 
long and warm debates. It was the cause of 
two of the three compromises of that immortal 
document. Be it understood, however, that 
these two compromises were a tacit recognition 



LEE'S VETERANS 29 

of slavery. First, in that three-fifths of the 
slaves should be counted in the census as the 
basis of representation in Congress ; and second, 
that the importation of slaves might be con- 
tinued to 1808. The fugitive slave law of 1850 
provided for the rendition of slaves who had 
escaped to free states. 

The Supreme Court decided in the Dredd 
Scott case in 1859 that under the Constitution 
neither negro slaves nor their descendants, slave 
or free, could become citizens of the United 
States, and added as a dictum that the Missouri 
Compromise was unconstitutional and that, 
therefore, a slave did not become free by being 
carried to a territory where slavery had been 
prohibited under that compromise. President 
Lincoln's proclamation, Jan. 1, 1863, declaring 
that all slaves in states, or parts of states in 
rebellion, should be free, was as illegal and un- 
constitutional as if the President of the United 
States to-day should declare that all the horses 
in the west should be loosed on the wild plains. 

The South, then, acted within its moral and 
constitutional rights in withdrawing from the 
Union. That act did not necessarily mean war. 
The Cotton States wanted no war and Northern 
statesmen advised: "If our sister states must 
leave us, in the name of Heaven, let them go 
in peace." But such was not to be. Gladstone's 
maxim, "those who could no longer co-operate 



30 A MEMORIAL WREATH 

with honor could at least part with honor," was 
unacceptable to the fire-eaters. The twice-re- 
peated promise of Secretary Seward to Justice 
Campbell, that Sumpter would be turned over 
to South Carolina, was broken as if it were not 
so much as "a scrap of paper." Confidence in 
the word of the Federal government was de- 
stroyed, for the Secretary knew when the prom- 
ise was made that a relief expedition had been 
ordered to hold the fort. Coercion was invoked 
where persuasion failed. Militarists mounted 
the saddle and rode the charging steed of in- 
vasion. It was then that the Southern men flew 
to arms. Virginia, cautious and conservative, 
but self-reliant and courageous, had waited and 
worked, prayed and hoped to avoid fratricidal 
strife. President Lincoln called upon her to 
furnish her quota of 75,000 men to coerce 
South Carolina. The die was cast ! Disregard- 
ing the consideration of interest and expe- 
diency, and with a supreme loyalty to honor and 
justice, she linked her destiny with the Con- 
federacy. 

"To arms ! to arms !" was the cry, and these 
veterans, then young and gay 9 brave and strong, 
responded with alacrity and enthusiasm. What 
a scene! On the walls of history there hangs 
no more inspiring picture than that of the 
Southern youths hurrying from ranch and plan- 
tation, from store and bank, from mountain and 



LEE'S VETERANS 31 

plain, from college and home — all the way from 
the Rio Grande to the Potomac — to draw their 
swords and imperil their lives in defending a 
small state against a powerful enemy. One of 
our own women, Mrs. Kate Langley Bosher, 
has described the struggle in the soul of our 
incomparable chieftain at Arlington, as he de- 
cided the issue between his state and his 
country : 

"A passion of conflict ! Country or state, 
Allegiance or loyalty, which clearer the call ? 
Man of the nation, a name blazoned on high, 
On escutcheons of glory ; should he part with 

the past 
In which they — his people — had writ deep 
and fast, 

Lee! 

Harsh, bitter and cruel the struggle. 
Then, white and undimmed, 
The altar of duty shone out of the dusk, 
And love burned away all dreaming of dross. 
But he knew not when yielding one sword for 

another, 
He had carved on the heart of his country for- 
ever, 

Leer 

Your actions, my fathers, combined the vir- 
tues of little Belgium, who made her bosom a 



32 A MEMORIAL WREATH 

battle ground rather than break her word; of 
Great Britain, who risked her hegemony to pro- 
tect a small nation ; of heroic France, who bled 
to repel invasion ; and of the United States, who 
unsheathed her shining sword to make obliga- 
tory international compact on sea and land. 
What if you did lose? You saved your honor 
and preserved your star from tarnish. The 
principles you cherished are the hope of all de- 
mocracies and the dread of all autocracies the 
world around. 

The South was no more fighting for slavery 
than France was preparing to attack Germany 
through Belgium. The South fighting for ne- 
gro slavery ! What a travesty upon truth ! Only 
one in thirty-three of the people owned slaves, 
and half of these held only from one to four. 
Fitzhugh Lee, Joseph E. Johnston and A. P. 
Hill never owned a slave. Stonewall Jackson 
owned two, whom he purchased at their own 
request. He gave these the privilege of acquir- 
ing their freedom at the purchase price, by the 
use for the purpose of their wages. The man 
accepted the offer and became a freeman; the 
woman preferred to remain a slave. Robert E. 
Lee, many years before the war, emancipated 
the few slaves inherited from his mother. The 
large majority of Lee Camp never owned a 
slave. The Confederate Constitution prohibited 
the importation of slaves. To say the South 



LEE'S VETERANS 33 

fought for slavery is not only to convict one's 
self of superficiality, but is also to fly in the 
face of unimpeachable history. 

War at its best is bad, but there are other 
things worse. In your campaigns we see war 
at its best, not only, as Morley sees, in its issues, 
but in its actual events. Before Bernhardi 
wrote his book, "How Germany Makes War," 
he should have read "How Lee Made War." 
The darkest stain had been removed from Ger- 
many by following the precedent of Lee. Deep- 
er than any wound which the Allies may inflict, 
more lasting than any defeat which she may 
sustain, is the wound, the wrong which Ger- 
many has inflicted upon herself by a war of 
atrocity and barbarity. A thousand years from 
now, if the world shall stand so long, impartial 
and untrammelled historians will record the 
crimes of Germany against the wounded, pris- 
oners, non-combatants, and the helpless and de- 
fenseless women and children in Belgium, 
France, Poland, Servia, Montenegro, and Rou- 
mania, and posterity will condemn her to exe- 
cration. In contrast they will set Lee and the 
Southern army, whose humanity and regard for 
military laws spoke a more civilized people a 
half century before. 

Three notable instances illustrate how the 
Confederacy conducted war against its enemies. 
They are Lee's protests to General Halleck, his 



34 A MEMORIAL WREATH 

address to the people of Maryland, and his in- 
struction to his own troops in Pennsylvania. 

(i) Pope, who succeeded McClellan, inaug- 
urated a program of rapine against the civilian 
population. General Lee earnestly protested to 
the Commanding General of the United States' 
army at Washington. He used, in part, this 
language: "Some of the military authorities 
seem to suppose that their end will be better at- 
tained by a savage war in which no quarter is 
to be given and no age or sex is to be spared, 
than by such hostilities as are alone recognized 
to be lawful in modern times. We find ourselves 
driven by our enemies by a steady progress, to 
a practice which we abhor, and which we are 
vainly struggling to avoid. Major General 
Pope and his commissioned officers are in the 
position which they have chosen for themselves 
— that of robbers and murderers, and not that 
of a public enemy, entitled after capture to be 
treated as prisoners of war. The President also 
instructed me to inform you that we renounce 
our rights of retaliation on the innocent, and 
will continue to treat the private soldiers of 
General Pope's army as prisoners of war." 

He continues, using such expressions as, "un- 
til the voice of an outraged humanity shall 
compel the respect for the recognized usages of 
war," and, "a sacred regard for plighted faith 
which shrank from the semblance of breaking 



LEE'S VETERANS 35 

a promise." The protests of the Bishop of Ma- 
lines may be more fiery, but in military annals, 
there is nothing finer than the firm, dignified 
language of our Chieftain. It accomplished the 
desired effect, for General Pope's orders were 
changed so that, "no officer or soldier might, 
without proper authority, leave his colors or 
ranks to take private property, or to enter a 
private house for that purpose, under the pe- 
nalty of death." 

(2) On September 8, 1862, General Lee is- 
sued an address to the people of Maryland, 
which he was about to enter, from which the 
following is quoted : "No constraint upon your 
free will is intended — no intimidation will be 
allowed. Within the limits of this army, at 
least, Marylanders shall once more enjoy their 
ancient freedom of thought and speech. We 
know no enemies among you and will protect 
all of every opinion. It is for you to decide 
your destiny, free, and without control. This 
army will respect your choice, whatever it may 
be ; and, while the Southern people will rejoice 
to welcome you to your natural position among 
them, they will only welcome you when you 
come of your free will." That promise was 
conscientiously kept and no Marylander suf- 
fered a loss or an indignity from the Confed- 
erate army. There was no intimidation, no rod 



36 A MEMORIAL WREATH 

of iron, no coercive measures, but rather the 
sweet accents of friendship and persuasion. 

(3) From Chambersburg, Penn., June 27, 
1863, General Lee issued orders to his troops. 
They knew how General Pope had ravaged the 
county of Culpepper until that smiling land was 
well nigh a waste. They knew how General 
Milroy, with headquarters at Winchester, had 
cruelly oppressed the people of the surrounding 
country. It was human nature for them, now 
that they had the opportunity, to pay the enemy 
back in his own coin ; but Christian charity tri- 
umphed over Mosaic retaliation, as we may see 
in the orders to the troops : "The duties exacted 
of us by civilization and Christianity are no less 
obligatory in the country of the enemy than in 
our own. The Commanding General considers 
that no greater disgrace could befall the army, 
and, through it, our whole people, than the per- 
petration of the barbarous outrages on the in- 
nocent and defenseless, and the wanton destruc- 
tion of private property, that have marked the 
course of the enemy in our own country. Such 
proceedings not only disgrace the perpetrators 
and all connected with them, but are subversive 
of the discipline and efficiency of the army. 
* * * It must be remembered that we make 
war only upon armed men, and that we cannot 
take vengeance for the wrongs our people have 
suffered without lowering ourselves in the eyes 



LEE'S VETERANS 37 

of all whose abhorence has been excited by the 
atrocities of our enemy, without offending 
against Him to whom vengeance belongeth." 

How magnanimous, how charitable, how 
Christlike those sentiments of our Commander ! 
He was made of finer stuff than the Kaiser. In 
General Lee there was no pharisaic pretense of 
piety, no contemptous familiarity with God, no 
posing as the "predominant" partner and 
authorized spokesman of the Almighty; but a 
splendid example of that religion summarized 
by the prophet as doing justice, showing mercy 
and walking humbly before God. Could the 
Kaiser rise to the sublimity of Lee considering 
surrender at Appomattox, disregarding a staff 
officer's expressed fears of posterity's opinion, 
asking the sole question "is it right? and if it 
is right, I take the responsibility," the world 
would be at peace within a week. But it is too 
much to expect a moral pigmy to reach the 
stature of a moral giant. It was such a char- 
acter that Woolsey looked upon when he said, 
"I have met but two men who realize my ideas 
of what a true hero should be; my friend 
Charles Gordon was one, General Lee was the 
other," and it was our cause of which the same 
Lord Woolsey wrote : 

"Ah, realm of shades but let her bear 
This blazon to the end of time! 



38 A MEMORIAL WREATH 

No nation rose so white and fair, 
Or fell so free of crime." 

As prudent people who are taught by expe- 
rience, we should draw such lessons as we may 
from the failure of the Confederacy and apply 
their force to the present world crisis. We are 
told that the important generals of all the bel- 
ligerents in Europe are studying the campaigns 
and strategy of Stonewall Jackson as they are 
no other man's, save, possibly, Napoleon's. The 
American people, lawmakers and civilians, may 
well ask what lessons the war between the states 
teaches them. Some are these : 

1. Heroism without harmony is unavailing. 
Braver men than followed our generals never 
shouldered a musket or faced a foe ; but their 
daring and sacrifices came to naught when gov- 
ernors and editors and statesmen criticized and 
opposed the measures of the Confederacy. The 
conscript law was denounced, the President held 
up to contempt and the orders of the Confede- 
racy were disregarded and defied when the tide 
of battle flowed against us. To some extent the 
same process is going on in Great Britain, 
France, Italy and Russia, and I pray that it 
may not be repeated in America. 

2. The inability of civilians and congress to 
conduct a war. It is a painful memory that the 
attempt of civilians and law makers to deter- 



LEE'S VETERANS 39 

mine military policies hampered President 
Davis and General Lee. They endeavored to 
control the appointment of military officers and 
delayed and debated important measures when 
decision and action were imperatively needed. 
A congress that should have employed every 
agency and strained every nerve to furnish Lee 
with all possible men and money, wasted pre- 
cious sessions discussing alleged unfairness in 
the distribution of military offices. 

Instead of accepting the advice of the Com- 
manding General and the recommendation of 
the President for extending conscription from 
35 to 45, congressional doctrinaires proposed a 
substitution of the volunteer system. To cure 
the ills resulting from straggling, General Lee 
asked for a competent and impartial court mar- 
tial with power to inflict the death penalty, and 
the reply of congress was an investigation to see 
whether the officers of the army had imposed 
capital sentences. Congress twice enacted leg- 
islation which would have depleted the army 
by allowing irresponsible physicians to grant 
furloughs, and the President, in vetoing the 
bills, reminded the law makers that "an army 
could not be administered by statute." 

An astute historian has said, "If ever a people 
attempted to bridle their Executive, the South- 
erners did so by their choice of civil representa- 
tives during the war." I am almost ready to 



40 A MEMORIAL WREATH 

take the position that the small bickerings, self- 
ish ambitions, personal f avoritisms and spoken 
and unspoken disloyalty within the Confederacy 
did more than the Federal army to wreck our 
Southern hopes and break the heart of our 
President. The lesson for us to-day is so plain 
that "he who runs may read." Politics may 
provoke a war, but it has never yet won a war. 

3. The necessity, in time of war, of sub- 
ordinating every other expediency to military 
efficiency. The Confederate cabinet was not 
the first nor the last formed to compose political 
differences rather than to engage the ablest 
talent. President Davis himself was a West 
Pointer, a brilliant officer of the Mexican war, 
a successful Secretary of War, a man trained 
for his task. He began with the policy of em- 
ploying experts as generals — Samuel Cooper, 
A. S. Johnston, Robert E. Lee, Joseph E. John- 
ston, P. G. T. Beauregard — every one of them 
from West Point. Immediately popular political 
orators and distinguished civilians began to 
criticize him and they never forgave him. 

In the Commissary Department his appoint- 
ment was not so fortunate. A man, notoriously 
slow, uncertain and impervious to suggestions, 
was appointed and retained over the repeated 
complaints of General Lee. Though in some 
sections of the country store houses were 
crowded with supplies, General Lee dined on a 



LEE'S VETERANS 41 

single cabbage head boiled in water, and his 
men and horses were emaciated for want of 
food. Bacon sold in Richmond for $3.50 per 
pound, wheat for $15.00 per bushel, boots for 
$100.00 per pair, and wood for $19.00 per cord. 
The railways, sometimes managed by incompe- 
tent and disloyal officials, were inadequately 
equipped, distressingly dilapidated and main- 
tained miserable schedules. An abridged vol- 
ume of the same acts may be read in the United 
States right now. 

4. The peril of unpreparedness. The South 
was a country of merchants and planters, with 
few manufactories. She had a long unfortified 
battle front with exposed sides, and a territory 
easily penetrated. Having no adequate navy, 
the ports were blockaded and her staple, cotton, 
became unmarketable and valueless. Without 
munitions of war she grew weaker from day 
to day while her enemy became stronger. Until 
an international court is constituted to compose 
all differences and enforce peace, and until the 
great nations have agreed to disarmament, the 
surest way for our nation to preserve peace is 
to be prepared for protection, notably by a 
citizen soldiery. 

5. War necessarily calls for sacrifices and en- 
tails suffering. The aristocratic women of 
Richmond denied themselves for their men in 
the field. They wore old patched bonnets and 



42 A MEMORIAL WREATH 

sewed until their arms were tired and their fin- 
gers stiff. The moist earth under many a South- 
ern home was dug up to obtain saltpeter, and 
the salt water of our coasts was evaporated to 
obtain a modicum of salt. The churches gave 
their pews to the hospitals and their bells to 
make cannon. Ah ! my friends, war is a stern 
and cruel business ! We have not yet begun to 
suffer. France, Great Britain and Belgium 
could understand better. You Confederates and 
your companions know. We have not yet "re- 
sisted unto blood, striving against sin." 

"The earth moves freedom's radiant wajj 
And ripens with our sorrow ; 
And 'tis the martyrdom to-dag 
Brings victory to-morrow." 

5. God can cause the wrath of man to praise 
Him. He is not a "War God," but He is a God 
of Providence. He makes "all things work to- 
gether for good to them who love Him." His 
power is over all. He causes the bees to swarm 
and make honey in the lion's carcass. We now 
understand that He used, or over-ruled, two 
secessions to build a union, "one and indissolu- 
ble forever." No one of us would revoke His 
final verdict. Each of us would join with Cut- 
ter, paraphrasing the words of Henry Clay in 
his Bunker Hill oration : 



LEE'S VETERANS 43 

"You ask me when I'd rend the scroll our fath- 
ers' names are written o'er, 

When I could see our flag unroll its mingled 
stars and stripes no more ; 

When with a worse than felon hand or felon 
counsels I would sever, 

The union of this glorious land, I answer, 
Never! Never!" 

Admonished by the lessons taught in the cost- 
ly school of sectional war; united as brothers 
who understand each other better because we 
have tested, each the other's mettle; conscious 
of the integrity of our motive and the right- 
eousness of our cause ; loving our country better 
than ourselves and our God supremely : 

"As ne'er before, our troth we plight, to rid the 

world of lies, 
To fill all hearts with truth and trust, and 

willing sacrifice, — 
To free all lands from hate and spite and fear 

from strand to strand, 
To make all nations neighbors, and the world 

one Fatherland!" 



III. 

A GIANT OF THE SOUTHWEST— B. H. 
CARROLL. 

God cast some men in heroic mould. They 
bear in their bodies the marks of distinciton. 
Their very presence attracts, impresses, inspires. 
Such were Alfred Tennyson, William E. Glad- 
stone, Richard Fuller, Sam Houston, J. B. 
Hawthorne and B. H. Carroll. 

Providence generously endowed my minis- 
terial ideal and religious hero with physical 
strength and form. His bone was large, his 
muscles hard, his lungs healthful, his frame 
gigantic, his power of endurance almost super- 
human. Tall as a poplar, straight as an Indian, 
strong as an Ursus, — he was conspicuous in any 
company. Looking upon Michael Angelo's 
Moses in Rome, I thought of Dr. Carroll as 
more nearly the model than any man I ever saw. 

A divine architect planned the temple of his 
body. Nature herself superintended the con- 
struction. The woods and fields were the play- 
grounds of his children; the gun and horse 
were the delights of his youth. Early life in the 
open air and vigorous exercise were the rock 



A GIANT OF THE SOUTHWEST 45 

upon which a house was built, that stood when, 
"the rains descended, and the floods came, and 
the winds blew and beat upon it." 

This spacious palace was occupied by a soul 
worthy of such a dwelling place. A regal spirit 
tabernacled in his body. Too lofty to stoop to 
sin, too honest to deceive, too guileless to sus- 
pect treachery, too great to be guilty of little- 
ness ; his was a transparent, magnanimous and 
unsullied soul. 

Great intellect in King-like body housed, 
Great life by lurking evil undefiled, 
Great heart so like a lion when aroused, 
Yet in affection like a little child. 

Universal Knowledge. 
Dr. Carroll had an insatiable thirst for 
knowledge. Before he attained his majority he 
had read the world's literary masters. In those 
early years he perused the pages of the Chris- 
tian fathers and devoured the writings of phi- 
losophers and skeptics. Nothing permanent in 
the realms of literature or history escaped him : 

"He held converse with all forms 
Of the many-sided mind 
And those whom passion hath not blinded, 
Subtle-thoughted, myriad-minded. ,, 

This avidity for reading he transmitted to 
his children. While yet in their teens, his sons 



46 A MEMORIAL WREATH 

had read more classic literature and modern fic- 
tion than most men read in a life time. 

The habit of study, always strong, grew 
stronger with the years. He was such an om- 
nivorous reader that fanciful stories have got- 
ten into circulation about his methods; though 
he did average an ordinary book a day for forty- 
five years, and occasionally read all night. He 
became deaf after locating in Waco. As Mil- 
ton, blind to this world, portrayed the visions 
of heaven ; and Beethoven, deaf to the discords 
of earth, revelled amidst harmony and melody ; 
so Dr. Carroll's infirmity, by giving uninter- 
rupted quiet, stimulated his intellectual activity 
and developed all his other faculties. A long 
pastorate, sermons published weekly, and tre^ 
mendous moral and denominational issues 
quickened his latent mental powers and brought 
them to the highest efficiency. 

His mind was not a sponge absorbing the 
ideas of others, but rather a fertile soil into 
which every fact and truth dropped, germinated 
and bore fruit. He was not an assimilator of 
the information and illustrations of others, but 
rather a tireless investigator searching out for 
himself and arranging his material in his own 
forceful manner. And he carried always an 
abundant supply. He had much of the origi- 
nality which says a thing first, and more of the 
potency which says it best. 



A GIANT OF THE SOUTHWEST 47 

His knowledge was so profound, that the su- 
perficial wearied, — and so comprehensive, that 
the young sometimes grew restless under his 
sermons and addresses. However, he never 
failed to hold the attention of the thoughtful. 
Preachers fed on his sermons, for they were 
full of strong meat. Instances arose in which 
they were preached verbatim et literatim with- 
out acknowledgment. He told me of one case 
in particular where he was assisting a Baylor 
boy in a meeting. Noticing, as he preached, 
that the mature brethren looked curious or lis- 
tened inattentively, he wondered the cause. 
After the third sermon a deacon took him aside 
and said, "Dr. Carroll, these are strong, helpful 
sermons you are preaching, but our pastor has 
already preached them to this congregation." It 
amused Dr. Carroll very much, but he did noth- 
ing to humiliate the young preacher. He re- 
peated to him the statement of the deacon and 
added, "Now, my young brother, if you have 
preached any more of my sermons, tell me 
which ones so 7" will not repeat them! 9 And the 
pastor gave him a list of six. 

The remarkable faculty of packing an enor- 
mous amount of information into sermons was 
his, to a high degree. A Virginia pastor was 
annoyed by an erroneous doctrine of assurance, 
which was working havoc in his church. Being 
unable to cope with the situation, he asked for 



48 A MEMORIAL WREATH 

some literature on the subject. I opened Dr. 
Carroll's first book of sermons, turned to one 
on assurance and said, "There is the ablest treat- 
ment of the Bible doctrine of assurance ever 
published." He borrowed the book, preached 
four sermons from the arguments of that one, 
and upon returning the volume said, "My 
people are straight on the doctrine now." That 
sermon settled clouds of dust in Texas and 
saved the denomination from a doctrinal 
drought. 

His "Interpretation of the English Bible" 
shows his method of study and trend of 
thought. As a commentary it is unique. Mark 
you, I do not rank it first ; it is not himself at 
his best. For the average preacher, however, 
that commentary is a Thesaurus of Theology 
and a gold mine of Homiletics. When the vol- 
ume on Genesis appeared I read to a brother 
minister the author's views upon the establish- 
ment of the Throne of Grace at the Gate of 
Eden. My visitor kindled with enthusiasm and 
exclaimed, "I never read or heard that before. 
Lend me that book." On next Saturday, in the 
Sunday service column, this pastor had an- 
nounced as his morning subject, "The Estab- 
lishment of the Throne of Grace." 

One year, the commencement orator wired 
the night before the occasion on which he was 
to speak that he could not fill his engagement. 



A GIANT OF THE SOUTHWEST 49 

The committee turned to Dr. Carroll. Oh, how 
many a time Baylor had called upon him and 
never in vain! He was the mighty Atlas who 
at critical moments took the load on his broad 
shoulders without bending under it. It was 
midnight and the address was on the program 
for eleven that morning. He cheerfully agreed 
to fill the gap — he was made for emergencies. 
Bear in mind that he had preached in that city 
for twenty-seven years, that he had taught in 
the University twice a week during the college 
course of those students, that he had spoken 
frequently upon the widest range of subjects. 

You wonder what theme could he discuss. 
Would he rehash a former oration ? Would he 
dress an old skeleton in the garb of a new name ? 
Not he. The motto of the Grecian philosopher 
was his subject, "I Carry All My Goods With 
Me." For one hour he poured a torrent of 
compelling logic, towering eloquence and burn- 
ing appeal upon the graduates, to make their 
information available for constant use, and he 
himself was the telling illustration of his theme. 

I have said his brain was fertile. It was also 
versatile. He could work mathematics, knew 
the theories of science, quoted Latin, had a 
usable knowledge of Greek, was an authority 
on literature, had sounded the depths of phi- 
losophy, delighted in astronomy, was perfectly 
familiar with mythology, carried the topog- 



50 A MEMORIAL WREATH 

raphy and geography of the earth in his ca- 
pacious mind, was abreast of modern events 
and knew accurately and minutely the history 
of the world. 

Two young men, one his younger son, had 
studied Grecian history for four months and 
spent an afternoon and evening reviewing for 
examination. At one A. M. confident of their 
preparation, they ceased cramming names and 
dates and hied themselves to the pantry to cram 
all the edibles to be found. Returning, they ob- 
served the light in Dr. Carroll's study and 
Charley said, "Let's go in and examine Papa." 
He was buried deep in the pages of Hall Caine's 
"Christian" when the young men interrupted 
him. Turning gently, for his patience with stu- 
dents was proverbial and he was always acces- 
sible to the humblest, he inquired, "What will 
you boys have ?" "We want to examine you on 
Grecian History." "Well, I didn't know I was 
on trial, but go ahead." 

For thirty minutes we plied him with the 
most difficult questions which we could re- 
call. He answered all accurately and more 
elaborately than did the text book. Having 
shot the last arrow in our quiver, we were pre- 
paring to withdraw when he stroked his long 
beard in that familiar manner, gave a merry 
twinkle and said, "Turn about is fair play. I 
want to ask you boys some questions on Greek 



A GIANT OF THE SOUTHWEST 51 

history/' "Fire ahead," we said. The first ques- 
tion completely bewildered us. We passed that, 
and asked for another with similar results, and 
so on, to our distress and his amusement, until 
in sheer desperation one said, "But those ques- 
tions are not in our text book." "Oh, ha, ha." 
His great frame shook with laughter. "I 
thought you two posed as students of Grecian 
History." 

In Virginia, I had affirmed that the first rec- 
ord of the Apostles Creed was in the fourth 
century and in that record the expression, "De- 
scended into hell" was not found. The state- 
ment was challenged. I knew it was correct for 
I had heard him make it and I never knew him 
to be in error as to a historical fact. I asked 
a number of well-informed brethren how to 
confirm the statement and no one of them could 
tell me. The very first time I saw Dr. Carroll. 
I asked him and he replied immediately, "You 
will find the authority for that in Schaffs 
Creeds of Christendom, volume two, page 45." 

Marvelous Memory. 
The secret of this available and unlimited 
knowledge was partly his omnivorous reading, 
partly his mental acumen, partly the sublimest 
of intellectual virtues, patient thinking, but 
mainly his marvelous memory. The Egyptians 
did not inscribe upon their papyri more indelli- 



52 A MEMORIAL WREATH 

bly than did he upon the tablets of his mind. 
This habit was formed early. He made a men- 
tal photograph of pages of books and filed irn 
his mind every important fact which he read. 
He acquired little through the ear. Knowing 
that reading of daily papers impairs the me- 
mory, he devoted a minimum of time to them. 
Appreciating that retention is the result of re- 
view, he went over and over the fields of knowl- 
edge until they were as familiar to him as the 
streams and paths on the old farm are to an 
East Texas boy. One can not remember what 
one never knew. Hence his first mental effort 
was to understand. Nothing was omitted be- 
cause difficult or dismissed until digested. 

This is the reason why he was, to so many, 
the first authority upon the Bible. He had 
weighed its words, traced the unfolding of its 
history, compared its doctrines and mastered 
its contents so completely, that he could give 
spontaneously and extemporaneously an opin- 
ion upon any Biblical subject. At the Southern 
Baptist Convention in Chattanooga in 1906 he 
delivered an impromptu address upon Evange- 
lism which silenced all objections to the estab- 
lishment of the Evangelistic Department of the 
Home Mission Board. Brethren marvelled at 
his mastery of the Scriptures. As he called the 
names of that galaxy of young evangelists sur- 
rounding Paul, and elucidated his theme from 



A GIANT OF THE SOUTHWEST 53 

the entire New Testament, all were consumed 
with a passion for souls. His speech remains 
the classic on that subject. 

His sermons are masterpieces in scriptural 
collation. He saw the text in its context, and 
also in its relation to all Scripture and was his 
own best concordance. Immediately upon 
choosing a subject his memory, without appar- 
ent effort, marshalled all the scriptural teach- 
ings and from those, outlined his thought and 
enforced his positions. In this respect he far 
surpassed Spurgeon, who was pre-eminently a 
Bible preacher. 

For several years Dr. Carroll taught a vol- 
untary Bible class in Baylor. It was the Genesis 
of the Southwestern Theological Seminary. 
The lecture room was crowded with students 
when no credits were allowed for the work. 
The classes of *94-'98 went with him through 
the Pentateuch, the Gospels and Acts. No one 
who ever sat in those classes would say he was 
not a great teacher. If teaching is causing 
others to know then he was Primus inter pares. 
The hard knots which the commentaries left 
uncut he split wide open with the wedge of his 
invincible logic. Verse by verse, chapter by 
chapter, and book by book, he expounded them 
all. My young heart burned within me when sit- 
ting at the feet of a teacher who could demon- 
strate the scriptural account of creation, explain 



54 A MEMORIAL WREATH 

how and why sin entered the world, tell where 
Lot got his wife, prove the immaculate concep- 
tion, and establish by legal evidence the resur- 
rection. 

By meeting every difficulty squarely and 
answering every possible question fairly, did he 
"justify the ways of God to men." He compre- 
hended the truth so clearly and presented it so 
forcefully that there seemed no other possible 
meaning. Indirectness of utterance was for- 
eign to him. His explanation did not need ex- 
plaining. He was the only one of my teachers 
with whom I never felt like taking issue. Much 
taught by other instructors has been forgotten, 
but I remember now Dr. Carroll's interpreta- 
tion of the controverted passages of Scripture; 
and the study and experience of twenty years 
have confirmed my belief in the doctrines as he 
held them. 

As a feat of memory, I know nothing to 
surpass an incident at the University of Texas. 
In the midst of an impassioned flight of ora- 
tory, he quoted from Hiawatha : 

"Never stoops the soaring vulture 
On his quarry in the desert, 
On the sick or wounded bison, 
But another vulture, watching, 
From his high aerial look-out, 
Sees the downward plunge, and follows ; 



A GIANT OF THE SOUTHWEST 55 

And a third pursues the second 
Coming from the invisible ether, 
First a speck and then a vulture 
Till the air is black with pinions. 

So disasters come not singly, 
But as if they watched and waited, 
Scanning one another's motions, 
When the first descends, the others 
Follow, follow, gathering flock-wise 
Round their victim, sick and wounded, 
First a shadow, then a sorrow, 
Till the air is dark with anguish." 

It was entirely unpremeditated. Afterwards, 
in thinking over it, he could not recall that he 
had ever consciously memorized those lines. If 
science could have examined his brain what 
wonders might have been disclosed ! 

Sense of Humor. 
Some men are sadly lacking in the sense of 
humor. They neither laugh nor make others 
laugh. Yet laughter is divine and is one of the 
distinguishing characteristics between man and 
beast. Since the Creator made man the only 
laughing animal, he must have meant for man 
to laugh. Dietitians tell us it aids digestion. 
We know it promotes happiness. Josh Billings 
quaintly says: "If a man kan't laff there is 
some mistake made in putting him together and 



56 A MEMORIAL WREATH 

if he won't laff he wants as much keeping away 
from az a bear-trap when it is sot." 

This trait of Dr. Carroll's was not generally 
known because he rarely told a joke in the pulpit 
and was excluded by his deafness from general 
conversation. But in that charmed family cir- 
cle where it was my good fortune to live for 
three happy years his humor was unfailing. 
The stories he told were always amusing and 
wholesome. He was an excellent punster. The 
meal hours, when he talked most familiarly, 
were shortened by his anecdotes. Many of them 
were original. Large appetites and good diges- 
tion run in the Carroll family. A room-mate — 
the most congenial of fellows — frequently over- 
taxed his digestive organs and made the night 
hideous for himself and me with nightmares. 
One morning at breakfast table I was relating 
one of my room-mate's dream the night before 
and remarked that it was becoming positively 
dangerous to sleep with him. Dr. Carroll in- 
terrupted, "George, do you think we could get 
some posts as tall as this dining room?" We 
roomed over the dining room. I replied, "I 
do not know sir, but we could splice them and 
make them tall enough. What do you want 
with them?" "Well," he said, "I thought if we 
could get posts tall enough we would build some 
stables for him to hitch his mares in at night, 
when he goes to bed." 



A GIANT OF THE SOUTHWEST 57 

While the confidences of his home are too 
sweet and sacred for public speech, it is but 
just to say that his home life was ideal. Filial 
affection and domestic felicity were enthroned 
there. His devotion to his wife and children 
was stronger than death and sweet as heaven, 
and they were reciprocated with unutterable 
reverence and passionate fondness. Never was 
he impatient with any member of his family 
and never was he heard to utter a cross word 
in his home. The q.earer you were to him the 
larger he loomed. True character is greatest at 
home. Three young preachers at different 
times were admitted as members of his family. 
They were Jeff D. Ray, George W. Truett and 
myself. All three agree to-day in crowning B. 
H. Carroll as the greatest man they knew at 
the time of his death. 

Soaring Eloquence. 

The Greeks believed that eloquence was a 
gift of the Gods. A discriminating vocabulary 
may be acquired, faultless diction may be mas- 
tered, grace of delivery may be learned in the 
schools; but genuine eloquence is born in the 
soul. Without a vivid imagination it is impos- 
sible. B. H. Carroll was naturally the most 
eloquent man I ever heard. He cared for none 
of the tricks of elocution; he rarely wrote his 
sermons; but when he spoke under the power 



58 A MEMORIAL WREATH 

of the Holy Spirit, it was logic on fire. How 
many a time in the old church at Waco has he 
electrified the College boys. There ministerial 
students received their most powerful and last- 
ing inspiration to be good ministers of Jesus 
Christ. 

We admire the golden eloquence of Chrysos- 
tom; the chastened splendor of Bossuet; the 
convincing profundity of Bondalour; the com- 
pelling unction of Fenelon ; the singular sweet- 
ness of Massilon; the appealing earnestness of 
Saurren ; the impassioned speech of John Knox ; 
the charming imagery of Jeremy Taylor; the 
torrential power of Richard Baxter; the splen- 
did bursts of Robert Hall, but all, all of these 
are surpassed in native, unaffected eloquence by 
B. H. Carroll. 

Where Fancy halted, weary in her flight, 

In other men, his fresh as morning rose 

And soared untrodden heights and seemed at 

home 
Where angels bashful looked. 

Did you ever read that sermon from his early 
ministry, "Watching Jesus On the Cross"? 
Where in the sermonology of Christendom can 
it be excelled for vivid description? Or, if you 
read the sermon on Love preached in Houston 
thirty years ago, did not your heart leap up as 
he piled Ossa on Pelion in climax after climax 



A GIANT OF THE SOUTHWEST 59 

equalled to the world's best oratory ? You men 
of the West never heard anything more realistic 
than his description of a drought: 

"I have witnessed a drouth in Texas. The 
earth was iron and the heavens brass. Dust 
clouded the thoroughfares and choked the 
travelers. Water courses ran dry, grass 
scorched and crackled, corn leaves twisted 
and wilted, stock died around the last water 
holes, the ground cracked in fissures, and the 
song of birds died out in parched throats. 
Men despaired. The whole earth prayed: 
'Rain, rain, rain. O heaven, send rain.' Sud- 
denly a cloud rises above the horizon and 
floats into vision like an angel of hope. It 
spreads a cool shade over the burning and 
glowing earth. Expectation gives life to 
desire. The lowing herds look up. The 
shriveled flowers open their tiny cups. The 
corn leaves untwist and rustle with gladness. 
And just when all trusting, suffering life 
opens her confiding heart to the promise of 
relief, the cloud, the cheating cloud, like a 
heartless coquette, gathers her drapery about 
her and floats scornfully away, leaving the 
angry sun free to dart his fires of death into 
the open heart of all suffering life." 

Some of you Texas orators give us a com- 



60 A MEMORIAL WREATH 

panion picture of a flood to hang by the side of 
that, and then Texas will be fairly portrayed! 
The heart melts with the memories of the 
country Sabbaths under his words : 

"Some of you can recall the sweet and holy 
charm of the old-time Sabbath Day — your 
Lord's Day ; the day commemorative of His 
resurrection; the day of the outpouring of 
the Spirit; the day which typifies your heav- 
enly state, the rest that remaineth for the 
people of God. Ah, me! My heart melts 
when I recall its old-time peace and joy; 
when women were modest and men were 
true; when Sabbath bells broke the Sabbath 
stillness with silvery tones of sweet music. 
The fields rested. The workshop was closed. 
The silent forests felt the presence of God. 
And in the ears of worshippers, wending 
their way through quiet streets or still, shady 
lanes, to the house of God, the winds, frag- 
rant with kissing the flowers, would whisper, 
'This is God's day. It is the type of heaven.' " 

The limits of this occasion do not permit me 
to quote that unmatched paragraph of mytho- 
logical allusions on infidelity, nor that astronom- 
ical introduction on God's call of Abraham 
beneath Syrian skies, nor that beautiful tribute 
to his co-laborer, J. B. Gambrell — the noblest 



A GIANT OF THE SOUTHWEST 61 

Roman of them all. Such eloquence was not 
born to die. 

Indomitable Courage. 

There are two kinds of courage, physical and 
moral. Some are quick to resent an insult but 
timid before a moral wrong. Others are loud 
in denouncing sin and sinners from the pulpit 
but are physical cowards on the street. Both 
kinds of courage in one man are rare. They 
were combined in B. H. Carroll. Physical 
bravery and moral courage belonged to him as 
strength to the ox or fleetness to the antelope. 
He was a member of McCullough's Texas Ran- 
gers, "the first regiment mustered into the Con- 
federate service/' and on the lonely and perilous 
frontier he showed himself to be worthy of the 
title "a brave man." 

During the prohibition campaign in 1887, 
San Antonio was the seat of Satan's synagogue. 
One distinguished gentleman had been shame- 
fully treated while attempting to make a prohi- 
bition speech. The lewd fellows of the baser 
sort declared no dry man should speak there. 
Dr. Carroll was warned not to go. He declared, 
"I will go." He went and spoke unharmed on 
the very spot where his co-worker had suffered 
indignities. 

The leader of the antis in that memorable 
campaign was Roger Q.Mills and the leader and 



62 A MEMORIAL WREATH 

chairman of the prohibitionists was B. H. Car- 
roll. Reports became current that Mills was 
anxious to meet Carroll in joint discussion. 
Senator Coke, who had measured swords with 
Dr. Carroll in a local option contest, remarked, 
"If Mills takes hold of Carroll, he will need 
somebody to help him turn loose." A notable 
debate was held in Padgett's Park, Waco. Dr. 
Carroll exposed his opponent's sophistry with 
cutting sarcasm and annihilated his argument 
with inexorable logic. Straightening himself 
and pointing that long index finger at Colonel 
Mills, he said : 

"Ah, Roger, the Dodger! 
Thou mayst dodge good and 
Thou mayst dodge evil, but 
With all thy dodging, thou 
Canst not dodge the devil. ,, 

In his rejoinder, Colonel Mills, unable to 
answer his opponent, resorted to personal 
abuse. Dr. Carroll arose and calmly denounced 
the statement as an unmitigated falsehood and 
a base slander. The thousands who filled the 
park were wild with excitement, or furious with 
rage. Men rushed madly upon the platform. 
Dr. Carroll was the calmest person in all that 
tumultuous crowd. There he stood, unmoved, 
unawed, unafraid. His disregard of personal 
danger was only surpassed by his self-control. 



A GIANT OP THE SOUTHWEST 63 

Let me add that years afterwards Senator 
Mills wrote Dr. Carroll a letter in which he paid 
high tribute to his ability and character, saying 
he was "the brainest man in Texas and the best 
posted on Thomas Jefferson and Democratic 
government of any one he knew," and confess- 
ing his own mistakes in his personalities. Dr. 
Carroll responded in the most fraternal spirit 
and read me the letter which was signed in the 
striking manner, "Yours as before the prohibi- 
tion campaign, B. H. Carroll." 

The autumn of 1897 in Waco was a time 
that tried men's souls. The unavoidable Brann 
controversy led to awful tragedies in which 
four men were killed on the streets and another 
wounded. The very atmosphere was charged 
with electricity. Good men went armed. It 
seemed as if : 

"Justice had fled to brutish beasts 
And men had lost their reason." 

Through all that turmoil and strife and 
danger, Dr. Carroll w r alked with cool head and 
calm heart. He was utterly insensible to fear. 

The prohibition campaign was also a test of 
higher moral courage. The cause was not 
strong and popular then. He staked his for- 
tune, hazarded his reputation, jeopardized his 
pastorate and risked his life for a moral prin- 
ciple. And following in the way be blazed, the 



64 A MEMORIAL WREATH 

untrammeled, enlightened citizenship of this, 
my native state, will yet drive the last saloon 
from her borders and wipe the stain of the 
licensed liquor traffic forever from her escutch- 
eon. That would be the most fitting monument 
you could erect to his precious memory. 

The Cotton Palace of Waco was built in 
1894. Prominent members of Dr. Carroll's 
church were on the directorate. A majority of 
the Board decided to open the Palace on Sun- 
day. The ministers' protest was disregarded. 
Dr. Carroll grew insistent. He was told that 
he would hurt the business interests of the com- 
munity and destroy his usefulness if he did not 
desist. I can hear his deep-toned voice sound- 
ing this moment and it thrills me as it did then : 

"If I knew the fate of Laocoon awaited 
me and my family, if I saw even now the 
pythons of vegeance emerging from the sea 
of popular wrath, and gliding toward me in 
noiseless slime, uncoiling their glittering 
length, revealing in supple sinuosities their 
deadly power of constriction, and freezing 
my heart with their cold, green, unwinking, 
basilisk eyes, yet would I, for Christ's sake, 
smite the hollow, treacherous side of this 
huge horse, and cry out : There are Greeks in 
it. Woe to the City that makes a breach in 
the walls of religion and morality to give 



A GIANT OF THE SOUTHWEST 65 

entrance to an enemy's gift, designedly too 
wide for passage through her regular gates." 

Peerless Leadership. 
He was born a King of men. Conscious of 
his kingship he walked the earth a ruler. Men 
followed him because of his acknowledged su- 
periority. One had to look up and ahead to see 
him. But envy and selfish ambition are not 
foreign to Texas. Human nature is everywhere 
the same. 

He who ascends to mountain tops shall find 
The loftiest peaks most wrapped in clouds and 

snow; 
He who surpasses or subdues mankind 
Must look down on the frown and hate 
Of those below. 

In ability he was head and shoulders above 
his brethren and the best were proud of him. 
The elements of his leadership were : 
1. His large ideas. He thought in circles, not 
in segments. He saw the whole horizon, not a 
patch of sky. He was built on a colossal scale 
and undertook titantic tasks. He was the gift 
of God to the largest State in the Union in its 
plastic period. These boundless plains were 
the fit arena for his compassing activities. 
Texas enterprises are the most gigantic, Texas 
Baptists are the most numerous, Texas preach- 
ers are the most evangelistic, and Texas 



66 A MEMORIAL WREATH 

churches are the most aggressive today, largely 
because, for forty years, this Prince in Israel 
lifted up a lofty standard around which to rally 
the hosts of the Lord. He did more to formu- 
late the theology and shape the ideals of the 
young preachers of Texas than all other men 
combined. 

2. His unstinted liberality. Life is too short 
and men are too smart to listen to appeals for 
contributions by preachers who are not them- 
selves liberal. He who would develop the be- 
nevolent spirit must show himself benevolent. 
A stingy, coveteous preacher impedes the prog- 
ress of the Kingdom and is a standing reproach 
to the Savior who gave His all. We cannot 
fool the people. They know our financial ability 
far better than we think, and they properly 
estimate our liberality. When Dr. Carroll was 
moving to Waco and carried all his earthly pos- 
sessions in a two-horse wagon, he and his wife 
covenanted to give God one-tenth of all their 
income. She kept the books during her life 
and could always tell what the tenth was. So 
can we all, if we figure as carefully for distri- 
bution as we do for acquisition. 

The Waco church grew under his ministry 
until it was recognized as pre-eminent among 
Texas churches. There was the beginning of 
the big things Texas Baptists are now doing. 
He set the pace in giving. When I went to 



A GIANT OF THE SOUTHWEST 67 

College in 1894 the state mission battle was 
raging. That fall I first saw him take a col- 
lection. He presented the cause with ponderous 
power and pathetic persuasion. The sermon 
closed with a heart-searching appeal to bring all 
the tithes into the storehouse. Then followed 
an earnest prayer that God's Holy Spirit would 
enable every one to do his duty. The public 
collection started with $200.00 from the pastor 
whose salary was $2,500, and the waves of 
giving rolled higher, until the largest mission 
offering in the history of the state was re- 
corded. You have gone far beyond that now, 
but he first gave you the example. I have al- 
ways known how to spend money. His example 
taught me and a thousand other preachers how 
to give to Christ's cause. Ellen Bell Carroll was 
a good business woman and Hallie Harrison 
Carroll was of independent income. As the de- 
mands multiplied, his contributions increased, 
and as his means grew, his donations enlarged. 
His wife would sometimes say, "Mr. Carroll, 
you are far beyond the tenth; you will give 
away everything we have." Good naturedly he 
would reply, "Ellen, you save it and I'll give it." 
Therein you find his credentials of leader- 
ship. He could with Gideon say, "Look on 
me and do likewise." And when Roderick Dhu 
blew his horn, the clans gathered from far and 
near. In his study at Waco were the portraits 



68 A MEMORIAL WREATH 

of a dozen men and women whom he called 
"the old guard/' Pausing in front of them one 
night and looking up with pleasurable emotion, 
he exclaimed, "Do you see those faces? They 
are the Lord's rich, elect in Texas. They seek 
first the Kingdom. They can be counted upon 
for emergencies. A telegram to that group 
would bring from each any reasonable amount 
for Christ's cause as quickly as electricity could 
carry messages." 

When persecution was rife in Scotland, Mr. 
Rollock once said to that martyr, James Guth- 
rie, "We have a Scottish proverb, 'J^nk that 
the wave may go o'er you/ will you jauk a lit- 
tle, Mr. Guthrie?" "Mr. Rollock," replied Mr. 
Guthrie gravely, "There is no jauking in the 
cause of Christ." B. H. Carroll never ducked! 

3. His sublime faith. The mighty enter- 
prises which he promoted were possible only by 
faith. His faith was as clear as the heights of 
the June-blue heaven. It was the assurance of 
things hoped for, the conviction of things not 
seen. The fierce conflicts which he waged with 
infidelity rooted and grounded him in the faith. 
He came off conqueror, and more than con- 
queror. His strength supported the weakness 
of others. The Bible was true to him every 
time it spoke. He took God literally at His 
word and the promise was fulfilled, "Ye shall 
remove mountains." By faith he saved State 



A GIANT OF THE SOUTHWEST 69 

Missions from retrenchment and disintegra- 
tion ; by faith he rescued Baylor from debt and 
death; by faith he founded a Seminary which 
is a pillar of Orthodoxy and a light-house of 
Evangelism; by faith he endured torturing 
physical sufferings; and by faith on his dying 
couch he brought the unseen world into view 
and looking up, "saw heaven open and Jesus 
standing at the right hand of the throne of 
God." 

In his long years of seeking after Truth, 
God did reveal Himself in divers modes; 
By paths of pain, of joyousness and ruth, 
Through sorrow-darkened and through sunlit 

roads 
He fared still forward, searching for the light, 
The knowledge of God's great immortal plan; 
Nor did his torch of wisdom burn less bright 
Because he lighted many a brother man. 

He lives in lives made nobler by his life, 
In minds enriched by contact with his own, 
In hearts made brave to bear temptation's strife, 
In Truth because by him the clearer known ; 
In souls that through his words were won to 

God, 
In mighty impulses of righteousness. 
This is his glory. Paths his feet have trod 
Lead upward to eternal blessedness. 



IV. 

OUR GREAT COMMONER— J. B. 
GAMBRELL 

No one who has died in recent years has re- 
ceived so many tributes from the religious press 
as Dr. J. B. Gambrell. All of them combined 
do not full justice to his unique personality. If 
some master writer should take the best of all 
that has been written and weave it into one ex- 
tended sketch, he might approximate a true 
characterization of this unusual man. I pur- 
pose to take a look through my window into his 
many-sided life — a life which always stood 
four-square. 

Clear Foresight. 

Dr. Gambrell moved to Texas while I was a 
Junior at Baylor. He came as Superintendent 
of Missions. The most awful denominational 
war ever waged in the South had been raging 
for several years. The Board of Directors of 
the Baptist General Convention had been the 
main object of the attacking forces. The Board, 
the Baptist Standard, and Baylor University 
were all located in Waco. Dallas, a larger 



OUR GREAT COMMONER 71 

city, and nearer the center of the Baptist popu- 
lation, was the stronghold of the opposition. 

Dr. Gambrell saw at once that Dallas, and 
the contiguous territory, must be captured if 
the battle for the organized work was to be 
won. Furthermore, he recognized that Dallas 
was a better center from which to radiate over 
the entire state. Since Waco was secure, and 
Baylor was there to hold the lines intact in that 
sector, he brought about, with the cordial con- 
currence of the Waco brethren, the removal of 
the Board of Directors of the Convention to 
Dallas. It was a bold stroke. It was Jack- 
sonian. A man of contracted vision, or faint 
heart, would never have taken the hazard. Time 
and events vindicated his daring courage and 
his adventurous faith. 

This man's intuition told him that the Inter- 
Church Movement was foredoomed to failure. 
He saw its cumbersomeness and impracticabil- 
ity from its inception. He aptly described it as 
a horse without a bridle which he refused to 
ride. His firm judgment and avowed convic- 
tions kept Southern Baptists from expensive 
entangling alliances which others entered to 
their embarrassment and regret. In the world- 
ly sense, he was not a business man, but his 
foresight in Kingdom matters saw beyond the 
ken of big business men. He was not especially 
adapted to executing plans, but he was un- 



T2 A MEMORIAL WREATH 

equaled in projecting them and giving others 
the vision and passion to execute. He was a son 
of Issachar who had understanding of the 
times and knew what Israel ought to do. His 
position on the Inter-Church Movement and on 
policies in Texas are now like fulfilled pro- 
phecies. 

Wise Statesmanship. 

Removal of headquarters to Dallas was 
hazardous strategy. His skill in dealing with 
the most delicate, perplexing and portentous 
problems both developed and revealed his sa- 
gacious statesmanship. At first, he tried con- 
ciliation. He sought a common ground on 
which Texas Baptists might work together. 
There was none to be found. He was not long 
in finding out that. He then, without irritation 
or impatience, adjusted himself to the situation, 
and marshalled his forces for the long-drawn- 
out war. 

The battle was fought in many a church and 
practically every association. It was fiercest 
in the Dallas Association. His plume waved in 
the thickest of the fray. He had learned to 
fight for the Confederacy under Lee in Vir- 
ginia. He was a good soldier for the Baptist 
Zion under Christ in Texas. 

Many a time I have seen him leading his 
hosts into battle. He always knew his ground 
and was sure of the justice of his cause. He 



OUR GREAT COMMONER 73 

was never sensible of fear or sensitive to at- 
tacks. Tense moments would come, as hot as 
these July days in Virginia. Then he would 
rise to speak, and as suddenly as come our sum- 
mer showers, but with less noise, he would tell 
a refreshing story which would convulse every- 
body, even his opponents, with laughter. That 
done, he would glide with ease into a clear, com- 
mon sense discussion of the issues involved. 

His voice readily found the range of any 
audience, whether in an auditorium or in the 
open air. His language was pure English, his 
illustrations homely, his manner direct, earnest, 
and at times tender. He would take his hear- 
ers on short excursions to hold their interest, 
but he always kept the main track in his mind 
and when he concluded, you felt he had brought 
the people along his way of thinking. As a 
free-and-easy platform speaker, for the high 
and low, the rich and poor, the educated and 
uneducated, the small group and the large 
crowd, he was without a peer in his day. As an 
expounder of the New Testament polity to the 
plain people, he has not been equaled since Paul. 

Imperturbable Spirit. 

In animated Board meetings, in agitated pub- 
lic discussions, in every trying situation, he 
preserved his poise. He might be confused on 
details, and unless others guarded these, he 



74 A MEMORIAL WREATH 

might approve illogical applications. This was 
because he saw the big things ; was more inter- 
ested in principles than in rules ; but under no 
circumstances did he lose his self-possession. 

From the most exciting meeting he could 
turn aside and sleep like a child. His long life 
was due to many causes such as : the inheritance 
of a good constitution, vigorous exercise in the 
woods and army in youth, and temperate habits. 
However, without an even temper and the gift 
of sleep he had died much sooner, or been de- 
crepit in his later years. His most widely use- 
ful years were after he passed the three score 
and ten allotted to man. Excitement never has- 
tened the beat of his heart ; anger never raised 
the pressure of his blood; insomnia never un- 
steadied his nerves. Behold him presiding over 
the Convention in New Orleans at the most tu- 
multuous hour. See a dozen impulsive messen- 
gers clamoring for recognition. Hear his un- 
parliamentary but common-sense and timely re- 
mark : "Brethren, keep cool. A hot-box delays 
the train." That was typical of his whole life. 
Then, following that session, he was sound 
asleep three minutes after he went to bed. 

Spontaneous Humor. 

Rarely did he tell current anecdotes. Often 
his stories were unpremeditated. They were 
drawn from his own experience and observa- 



OUR GREAT COMMONER 75 

tion and were called forth by the occasion. 
Years ago, he visited Boston to deliver an ad- 
dress on the Negro question in Faneuil Hall. 
Never fastidious in his dress, he was really 
careless when Mrs. Gambrell was not along to 
look after him. He appeared at the appointed 
hour. The presiding officer looked him over. 
His trousers were uncreased, his collar was cel- 
luloid, and his neck-tie was disarranged. The 
chairman was mystified and introduced him 
with these brief words: "Ladies and gentle- 
men : We have with us this evening Mr. Gam- 
brell, from Mississippi, and I hope he will speak 
better than he looks." 

Dr. Gambrell once told me that introduction 
suited him better than any he ever received. He 
said: "It gave me a good spring-board from 
which to jump." As he proceeded with his dis- 
cussion, he remarked that the Northern people, 
in dealing with the Negro question in the South, 
needed gumption. The chairman interrupted, 
"Mr. Gambrell, what is gumption?" In his in- 
imitable manner, Dr. Gambrell replied: "It is 
one-half New Testament religion and one-half 
common sense; and when you put a teaspoonful 
of that mixture on a dog's nose it will keep him 
from barking up a tree where there is no coon." 
I submit that for ready wit, for spontaneous 
humor, that answer is not excelled in the his- 
tory of repartee. 



76 A MEMORIAL WREATH 

Dr. Gambrell was on the witness stand in a 
famous trial. An able lawyer, in the cross- 
examination, asked him if it were not a fact 
that he attended the Houston Convention as a 
candidate for the position of Superintendent of 
Missions. He replied : "No, that is not a fact." 
Then, dropping his head, he said in an appar- 
ently nonchalant manner, "I was never a can- 
didate for but two things in my life/' The asso- 
ciate counsel, hearing the remark and remem- 
bering that he had been the Prohibitionist nomi- 
nee for Governor of Georgia and thinking he 
alluded to that event and intending to bring out 
the information and prejudice the case with the 
Democratic jury, interjected: "Mr. Gambrell, 
you say you were never a candidate for but two 
things in your life. Tell this jury what those 
two things were." He answered promptly: 
"One was to be a member of a Baptist church, 
and the other was to be Mrs. Gambrell's hus- 
band." 

It is impossible to describe the effect of that 
sentence. The jury was composed mostly of 
farmers who were accustomed to going to 
bed when the chickens went to roost. The trial 
was running night and day. It was then night, 
and several of the jurors were asleep. Irrepres- 
sible laughter broke out on the bench and rolled 
through the court room. The sleeping jurors 
awoke and asked the other jurors what had 



OUR GREAT COMMONER 77 

happened. When they were told, it was funny 
to see them shake with laughter. The lawyers, 
thereafter, were very cautious in dealing with 
the witness. Yes, and it is fitting to say that 
he was eminently successful in those two can- 
didacies, than which he could had no more 
worthy aspirations. 

Quaint Philosophy. 

An admirer of Mr. Wilson said during Mr. 
Wilson's campaign for the Democratic nomina- 
tion : "He has the faculty of saying the right 
thing just a little bit better than any other man 
in this country." Mr. Wilson did not always 
live up to that mark. However, Dr. Gambrell 
had the faculty of saying more in fewer words 
and in a more striking manner than any man 
among us, and this faculty never failed. Hear 
his message sent through Secretary Groner to 
a round-up meeting he could not attend be- 
cause of his last and fatal illness: "Tell them 
I am like a crippled dog in a fox chase, out of 
the running but listening to the chase." A col- 
lection of his canine analogies would make a 
compendium of philosophy. There was pro- 
fundity in his reply to a question as to why he 
used dog stories : "A dog is so close kin to a 
man." 

Sam Jones paused in the midst of a sermon 
and turning to Dr. Gambrell, who was sitting 



78 A MEMORIAL WREATH 

on the platform, said, "Dr. Gambrell, the Lord 
can turn a goat into a sheep, can't He?" Dr. 
Gambrell assented. Sam then said, "He can 
turn the sheep back into a goat, can't He?" Dr. 
Gambrell replied, "No, Brother Jones ; the Lord 
can do His work but once." That was a deep 
saying. Unfolded, it shows the character of 
God, the plan of salvation and the believer's 
security. A volume of systematic theology is 
latent in that one sentence. 

"Bill Morgan's Economy," "Who Owns the 
Wool," "the Tee-Hee Girl," "Up Fool Hill," 
"Squire Sinkhorn's Mistake," and "Lizard 
Killing," all published in "Ten Years in Texas," 
deserve to be ranked with the masterpieces of 
the world's sages. Truths are presented in 
those articles with the profundity of a Plato 
and yet with the simplicity of an Aesop. If I 
were asked to name one thing he could do bet- 
ter than any one else, I should probably think 
of his ability to state principles in simple and 
striking terms. 

A Ready Writer. 
Writing, according to Bacon, maketh an ex- 
act man. Early in life, Dr. Gambrell began to 
write and he kept it up until the week of his 
death. He once told me that, when he was a 
young man, he would practice by writing ar- 
ticles and then crumpling them up and throwing 



OUR GREAT COMMONER 79 

them in the waste basket. In 1877 he became 
editor of the Baptist Record of Mississippi. 
Probably not a week passed afterwards that 
he did not compose something for the press. 
He became the most prolific writer for the de- 
nominational press in the history of Chris- 
tianity. 

More than any man in the South, he magni- 
fied the religious papers. He rightly appraised 
their value. He knew that they were the best 
medium of communication; that a large de- 
nomination, composed of all classes, could not 
grow without information; and he mightily 
used the printed page to disseminate truth. He 
was the largest benefactor of the editors and 
owners of the denominational press by creating 
a healthful sentiment for the publications ; and 
his conception of the place and function of the 
religious paper led to denominational owner- 
ship of most of the Southern papers. 

His method was to encourage free and full 
discussion. He believed that error would lose 
in a combat with truth, if truth were fairly pre- 
sented. He had a wholesome confidence in the 
ability of the masses to discern the vital thing 
in controverted issues, and this confidence was 
justified by the results. There has not lived 
among us a man with quite so sublime a faith 
in the competency of God's people to decide for 
themselves; nor have we ever had a leader 



80 A MEMORIAL WREATH 

whom the plain people trusted more implicitly 
or followed more loyally. 

Dr. Gambrell's writings were constructive — 
indeed that was the fixed trend of his thought 
and action. Little esteem had he for carping 
and destructive critics. Hear his own words: 
"A man shooting at another with intent to hurt 
is not a critic. Likely he is a plain murderer. 
A man putting a cross-tie on the railroad track 
to derail the train is not a critic of the train. 
He is a criminal wrecker. An agitator is not a 
critic. A man crying 'wolf, wolf/ when there 
is no wolf and he knows it, is not a critic. Like- 
ly he is a lying idler and mischief-maker. A 
man seeking to burn a house is not a critic of 
the house. If the house is useless and in the 
way, may be, it ought to be burned ; but house 
burning is not criticism. There is another name 
for it. A dog barking at the moon is not a 
critic, nor an astronomer either. He is a 
howler." 

A Kingdom Builder. 

The essentials of a Kingdom-builder are: i. 
A certain knowledge. He must not tread with 
uncertainty nor grope in darkness. Unless he 
is in the light he cannot lead others to the light. 
Dr. Gambrell was not considered a bookish 
man. I do not recall ever to have seen him 
reading but one book. Yet a surprising knowl- 
edge of history would sometimes flash forth in 



OUR GREAT COMMONER 81 

one of his discussions. He cared more for the 
philosophy of history than for the dates, and 
in that sphere he was an expert. His literary 
allusions were scant, yet he knew good litera- 
ture. Never did he quote a poem in an ad- 
dress, yet he loved poetry. 

His knowledge was transcendent in two 
realms, viz : human nature and New Testament 
polity. Because he knew the minds and hearts 
of men and was rooted and grounded in the 
practices of the apostolic churches, he became 
the accepted spokesman of three million con- 
stituents. 

He about established three great principles 
in our thinking and practice. ( I ) A church can- 
not delegate its authority nor merge its identity 
into a general organization. (2) Associations 
and Conventions are for counsel and co-opera- 
tion in matters of common concern. (3) Such 
general organizations have the authority to de- 
termine the qualifications and character of their 
membership. Francis Wayland, the philosopher, 
and B. H. Carroll, the theologian, knew these 
principles as distinctly as J. B. Gambrell; but 
they never caused the common people to under- 
stand them as did he. 

2. A broad vision. He who leads a large con- 
stituency must see far. He must survey the 
whole field, must see the entire horizon. Dr. 
Gambrell set himself to two big tasks: the 



82 A MEMORIAL WREATH 

nationalization of the Southern spirit and the 
continentalization of the Baptist program. So 
did he believe that he could solidify the states 
and unify the churches. Jefferson in statecraft 
and Carey in missions did not comprehend each 
his separate sphere more completely than did 
Dr. Gambrell these two gigantic tasks. 

A brave Confederate soldier, he never apol- 
ogized for the principles for which he fought. 
He did deplore the sectional attitude of the 
South as bad, even fatal, tactics. He labored 
with tongue and pen for fifty-five years to cure 
that defect. Hear him : "I believe the hour has 
come for the South to get out of the corner, and 
let our influence and power flow even out into 
currents of national life. The race question is 
now national, with the heavy end of it still 
resting on the South. But the North has all it 
wants of it, quite enough to bring them to 
sanity. * * * Sectional politics cannot help 
us or the nation. * * * The South has a wide 
open door, out of a corner, out into a wide 
field of usefulness and power, with everything 
to gain and nothing to lose by walking out and 
leaving the dead past to bury its dead." 

His other great conception was a world pro- 
gram for his denomination, a program as en- 
compassing as the race of man and as complete 
as the great commission. Lopsidedness in mis- 
sions, he could not endure. Playing up one in- 



OUR GREAT COMMONER 83 

terest to the disparagement, or neglect, of an- 
other, was, to his thinking, inexcusable narrow- 
ness. "In the Kingdom, there can be no divided 
interests, and if disaster comes to one part of 
the work all must suffer." Limiting our mis- 
sion to any section of the globe was, in his in- 
terpretation, unscriptural. A united denomina- 
tion with the whole commission marching into 
all the world was the goal he sought, and he 
came near to seeing it reached before he finished 
his course. 

3. Unselfish devotion. Christ is our supreme 
example of living and suffering for one's cause. 
Stonewall Jackson is another who shared the 
lot of hardship with his men and for his cause. 
J. B. Gambrell is another. He was so wrapped 
up in the cause that he appeared indifferent to 
personal consequences. Young men followed 
him because they knew he was no time-server, 
no self-seeker. All the while, he was doing 
what he called on his followers to do. Many a 
missionary and country preacher scraped the 
bottom in his contributions because "Uncle 
Gideon" was doing "likewise." He richly de- 
served that title and there was a fitness in the 
sobriquet. 

Through Dr. Gambrell's life, since I met 
him upon his moving to Texas in 1896, there 
was a Pauline devotion that counted "all things 
but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of 



84 A MEMORIAL WREATH 

Christ Jesus my Lord; for whom I have suf- 
fered the loss of all things, and do count them 
but refuse, that I may win Christ." He re- 
joiced to suffer for Christ. He refused to sue 
for his character on the ground that a character 
which he had to be sued for was worth nothing. 
He would say : "There is a good deal of mud- 
slinging, but it will come off when it gets dry." 
He was fond of Beecher's saying: "Nothing so 
reminds me of a cat chasing its tail as a man 
trying to look after his influence." 

On the issue of the right of Baptists to preach 
in the camps without governmental interfer- 
ence, so long as they observed all necessary mili- 
tary requirements, he became so earnest that 
he might have welcomed imprisonment to es- 
tablish his contention. 

Without inherited wealth, but with large 
earning capacity, he worked unselfishly for 
Christ, gave liberally of his meager means to 
all worthy objects, devoted his valuable time to 
Kingdom enterprises and died poor in this 
world's goods. His example of willingness to 
render extra service without stipulated remu- 
neration is worthy of all emulation. His 
scrupulous care not to be entangled in financial 
affairs is a precedent young preachers would 
do well to follow. His pattern of service is 
found in his words on the Work of Preachers : 
"They have enriched the world, content them- 



OUR GREAT COMMONER 85 

selves to remain poor. There is not another 
class of men who have done half so much for 
the world and received so little of this world's 
goods in return. Their reward is on high. 
They do not expect it here ; they do not seek it." 

4. A conquering optimism. Most great men 
are subject to moments of depression. Those 
who climb the heights also descend into the 
depths. Dr. Gambrell was an exception. He 
was no stoic, nor was he phlegmatic. He loved 
life and its good things. A hostess once asked 
him what his favorite dishes were. He replied : 
"I love victuals." He was deeply emotional. 
Did you never see him wipe the rolling tears 
from his cheeks under a gospel message? Did 
you never see him moving about on the plat- 
form shaking hands in some high hour of the 
Texas Convention? Yes, he had his moments 
of spiritual exaltation. If he was ever de- 
spondent no one saw him in the mood. 

Exceptionally trying were many of the cir- 
cumstances of his long life. Amid the hard- 
ships of soldier life he kept a stout heart. In 
the stringent days of editorship, or the stress- 
ful days of Missionary Secretaryship, he 
worked right on, confident of his mission. 
Amid the sorrows of sudden deaths in his fam- 
ily, his faith steadied him. Through seven 
months of court trials, under the fiercest fire of 
cross-examinations and attorney's speeches, he 



8( A MEMORIAL WREATH 

never winced. When others were doubtful, dis- 
couraged, and despondent, he heartened them 
by his faith and courage. When it was all over 
he could truthfully say: "For one, I did not 
entertain a doubt that the principles of democ- 
racy in the denomination would be vindicated. 
I never doubted, that while we were riding 
rough seas and traveling rough roads, in the 
end, neither the work, nor the workers could 
be ridden down. I felt sure that, in the end, 
people would turn to the right side. I never 
had any more doubt of it, than I had that the 
Heavenly bodies will keep their places tinder 
the unseen, but powerful law of attraction." 

Oh, how his comrades leaned on him in those 
stormy times! Paul's words were his experi- 
ence, "That ye may be able to stand, and having 
done all to stand." He had strength enough and 
to spare. If he had fallen, it seemed that chaos 
would ensue. He stood and others, steadied 
by him, were thus able to stand. Nor was it 
"stack-pole" religion. He built around himself 
only as he embodied the great issues. Before 
he was taken away he could say with confi- 
dence: "If any twenty men in the state were 
to die on a night, the great movement for prog- 
ress would go on." 

The confidence born of faith in God and in 
the right strengthened Dr. Gambrell in times 
that try the bravest souls. His son, Roderic, 



OUR GREAT COMMONER 87 

a pioneer prohibitionist, was foully assassinated 
by the liquorites. Mob violence was threatened 
the criminals. Dr. Gambrell stemmed the ris- 
ing tide of rage : "Let the law take its course. 
Vengeance belongeth unto God." The law 
failed to function properly and no one was con- 
victed. But God was not mocked. The Judge 
who instigated the murder fell down the stairs 
from his office and fractured his skull. Later, 
a man was traveling a wooded road in Missis- 
sippi. He heard a human voice groaning in 
agony near the road. Dismounting, he found 
a man in the toils of death who said : "I am the 
man w 7 ho killed Roderic Gambrell and someone 
has shot me." 

The clay after the burial of his beloved wife, 
and no man was ever blessed with a better help- 
meet, he resumed his work at his office and took 
up his load and "carried on." When I think of 
Dr. Gambrell there comes to mind Browning's 
picture of 

"One who never turned his back, but marched 
breast forward; 

Never doubted clouds would break ; 
Never dreamed though right were worsted 
Wrong would triumph; 
Held we fall to rise, or baffled to fight better- 
Sleep to wake." 



88 A MEMORIAL WREATH 

Bits of Wisdom. 

When Professor Robertson wrote the life 
of Dr. Broadus he largely let Dr. Broadus write 
the book himself by quotations from his letters 
and writings. Perhaps the best way to per- 
petuate the memory of Dr. Gambrell would be 
to publish, in one edition, all his writings. Un- 
til that is done, and in the event it is never 
done, I venture to put in small compass, espe- 
cially for the young, certain bits of his wisdom 
which should not be permitted to perish. 

i. On Unification. "There is a difference be- 
tween contact and unity. Apples, in a barrel, 
are in contact and are together, in a sense, but 
they are not united. Jonah and the whale were 
not united, and they did not stay together when 
the commotion came." Again: "There is not 
much difficulty in stacking up spoons, made in 
the same mold, though they are not straight. 
It is altogether a different matter, however, to 
undertake to stack up wheel barrows, because 
they were not made to fit." Still again: "We 
need more horse worse than we need move 
harness." 

2. On denominational troubles. "It takes 
churning to get butter and Texas was having 
a general churning up and a better alignment 
of forces." Again: "A bomb exploded in the 
open may do some harm; but exploded in a 
house will wreck things." Once more: "Diffi- 



OUR GREAT COMMONER 89 

culties abound on every side ; but difficulties are 
opportunities spelled another way. And every 
Christian ought to learn to spell. ,, Still again: 
"Baptists have such a ready way of disposing 
of heretics and other disorganizers. A friend 
of mine in Mississippi invented a patent whiffle 
tree. The trick of it lay in pulling a string, and 
the runaway horse found himself going at 
whatever gait suited him, with the buggy left 
behind. We do not have to take everything to 
pieces, from top to bottom, to get an obstreper- 
ous man out. We just simply pull the string 
and off he goes." 

3. On contrary people. "What makes a mule 
like he is ? He is a cross between two species, 
each of which is docile and reliable. The phi- 
losophy of it lies in the want of a definite direc- 
tion given to the life of the mule. There are two 
streams of blood in his veins, running cross, 
and not knowing exactly what he is, whether 
an ass or a horse, he vacillates and never takes 
a definite course in life.^ Again: "All fads, 
whether religious or not, are small vanities. 
There are fads in ladies' bonnets, in neck-ties, 
in watch-charms, in shoes, in books, in pro- 
nunciation. All of them are as the mistletoe to 
the solid wood. They come and go with times 
and seasons/' Once more : "Not a few churches 
hold on to a set of old leaders, deacons and 
others, after they have long been a burden on 



90 A MEMORIAL WREATH 

every member of the church. These effete lead- 
ers are most known as not leading. Like veri- 
table corns, they locate themselves on the body, 
and make it very uncomfortable if they are 
rubbed." 

4. On a constructive program. "The world ad- 
vances on affirmations, not negations. You can 
not sweep darkness out of your house; but the 
darkness disappears the instant you bring in the 
light." Again: "I have often noticed that sol- 
diers, who would fall out in camp and fight each 
other in camp, while they were doing nothing 
else, would not only go in, side by side, in a 
great battle and fight like heroes, but they came 
out with mutual admiration for each other's 
courage, and their personal animosities were 
sunk in their love for the cause for which they 
both fought, and they became fast friends." 
Once more: "More people, a hundred to one, 
will join in a bear hunt than will turn out to 
kill a mouse." 

5. On democracy. "Democracy in religion, 
as in state, carries its own antitoxin." Again: 
"Baptists have never failed except when they 
have failed to apply their own simple principles 
with fidelity." Once more: "The New Testa- 
ment is a hard book to live up to. In the first 
place, every separate person must think, pray, 
repent, believe, live for himself. Nobody can 
put his life off on somebody else. No one can 



OUR GREAT COMMONER 91 

take responsibilities for another." Further- 
more : "Under the voluntary principle we may 
have the most perfect, flexible and efficient or- 
ganization the human mind can conceive, all of 
it resting on the individual as the unit and fol- 
lowing the perfection of military organization* 
in which the individual stands for all in him, 
and each stands for all and all for each. It is 
given to us to demonstrate on a large scale what 
the voluntary principle is worth in the Chris- 
tian warfare. We may put to shame all the 
'strong church governments' by the government 
of the New Testament, which leaves individuals 
free to co-operate for the glory of our common 
Lord on principles of love and consecration." 

6. On the boy. "The big boy is an institution 
in this world. He is, indeed, a series of per- 
sonalities in one extraordinary combination. 
The only certain thing about him is his uncer- 
tainty. * * * Big boys are nearly certain to 
have the big-head. This is no bad sign. It is 
an awkward sense of power, without wisdom of 
discipline." 

7. On the girl. "She may be dull on mathe- 
matics or language, but in that finest of all 
earthly sciences, the knowledge of loving and 
lifting the world higher by love and home, she 
will stand at the head of her class. * * * She 
could give Tallyrand odds in diplomacy and 
leave him in a labyrinth of words wondering 



92 A MEMORIAL WREATH 

what she really meant. Not only in words, but 
in maneuvering she is a captain. If from some 
refined sensibility or for other reasons she does 
not wish to hear a declaration of love, which 
her finer intuition tells her is waiting a chance, 
she will see that the chance does not come. If 
she is ready she can beat General Lord Roberts 
clearing the coasts. Her little brothers and sis- 
ters all find employment elsewhere." 

8. On newspapers. "If the Philistines had 
known how to run newspapers, Samson could 
not have played them a worse trick than to have 
started them in the newspaper business in oppo- 
sition to each other." Again: "If I were think- 
ing of starting a newspaper I would in all prob- 
ability not start it." 

9. On preachers. "In the Kingdom he is the 
elect of the elect, a chosen vessel for the high- 
est possible use in the King's service. On the 
minister's faithfulness depends not only the sal- 
vation of souls, but all the highest interests of 
the home, the church, and the state. The faith- 
ful minister is far away the most important 
man in any community." Again: "I believe the 
greatest weakness in the ministry to-day is lack 
of a proper purpose." Once more : "Place-hunt- 
ing, a desire to get up in the ministry, has kept 
many a man down in the ministry all his life. 
Commit yourself fully to the Lord and remem- 
ber that it is absolutely safe to do so. You can- 



OUR GREAT COMMONER 93 

not know where He will lead you nor how He 
will lead you, but He will lead you by a way 
that He knows, and it will be, without a doubt, 
the right way." Still again: "The best preach- 
ing and teaching is that which brings the sin- 
ner, by the shortest road, to look upon Jesus 
by faith, that keeps all thoughts of mere process 
out of the way." Furthermore : "The preacher 
who makes service second to position is spoiled." 
10. On Christian education. "The Scotch 
have an exceedingly rugged country, but they 
are a glorious people, because they are religious 
and devoted to education. No equal number of 
people in the world exercise a wider or better 
influence over every realm of human activity." 
Again: "To a large extent, we look to our 
schools for intelligent leadership. Consecration 
is the very heart of Christian education." Once 
more : "A degree is like a promissory note. The 
value of it depends upon what is back of it. A 
ten-dollar note signed by one man is worth more 
than a thousand-dollar note signed by some 
other man." Still again: "There ought to be 
downright honesty in dealing with all educa- 
tional questions, and humbuggery in education 
is next to the worst humbuggery in the world." 
Once more: "Whoever invokes the co-opera- 
tion of free, intelligent churches must carry the 
responsibility of informing the churches. In 



94 A MEMORIAL WREATH 

estimating a church it must be weighed rather 
than counted." 

II. On Christ. "The man who reads history 
cannot remain ignorant of the fact that with 
the coming of Jesus Christ into the world there 
came the greatest regenerating force among 
men humanity has f elt." Again : "Woe to the 
people who give a second place to that for which 
Christ came into the world — to seek and to save 
the lost." Still again: "Jesus Christ was the 
world's greatest citizen, the mold and perfection 
of the highest manhood. He was simplicity 
itself, in life, in manner, in teaching. He was 
the commoner of all ages. The common people' 
heard Him gladly because they understood Him 
and because He loved them, helped them and 
gave them hope." 

The last paragraph contains Dr. Gambreirs 
ideal for his own life. It was nothing short of 
his conception of Christ. He was as true to 
that ideal as Thomas A. Kempis or Francis of 
Assissi were to their ideals in Christ. In his 
day he pursued it with a passion and an aban- 
don comparable to theirs in their day. You 
seek for the explanation of this far-seeing, 
statesmanlike, imperturbable, optimistic, cou- 
rageous, steadfast, democratic Kingdom build- 
er? The answer is Jesus Christ. Christ saved 
him, kept him, owned him, used him, blessed 
him. He is henceforth "forever with the Lord." 



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